amazon Australia

I note that amazon have officially set up in Australia now, only so far for digital content. In fact I have been solicited to move my kindle library from amazon US to amazon Australia.
I have resisted so far but if the AUD continues to nose dive, I might be an option.
I would like to see physical books sold here. Would be great to access amazon prices without the fear of postage costs from Uk/US.

I'm not sure we have a choice! (as in 'solicited'). For me they simply won't allow me to buy ebooks from Amazon.com any more, so I choose my ebooks from the American site (because the Australian site has few 'serious' books showing as yet), then I transfer across to the Oz site & buy. Which saves exchange-rate costs, in addition to the p/h costs incurred when you buy pre-digitals.

Only real problem for me is that some ebooks are not available for purchase in Oz, for reasons that are mysterious to me. Steiner's 'On Difficulty' was first published in 1980 and was probably once available in Oz book shops. Now there is a new ebook version just out a few months ago, but not available for purchase in Oz, and you can't buy it from UK either.

Presumably the whole point of the ebook publication is to capture a new or different readership so you would think that copyright wouldn't be a problem. Sounds idiotic to me.

that's interesting - I haven't been forced to move across to the .au version of amazon yet and I have bought a kindle book since the new arrangement has been in place - I am 'solicited' but not forced so far - I don't plan to move if I don't have to as I am a heavy user of audible which is now linked to my amazon account and that is not accessible via the .au store.

as for the copyright - geographical rights restrictions still apply even to eBook formats - rights holders can make more money by selling their rights (in each format) country by country

Well all I know is that, ever since the Oz site came into existence 2 or 3 months ago, when I go to a Kindle book on Am.com, the page often doesn't show the ebook's price in US dollars (though sometimes it does) and in the top right where I used to do a one-click purchase, it now has the following note: "Kindle titles are available for AU customers on Am.com.au. Continue shopping on the Kindle store at Am.com.au" I follow the instruction and up comes the basically identical page but with the price in Oz dollars. I then one-click buy. Generally this is fine for me, given the absence of American Express' conversion fee and providing that the kindle book is in fact available in Oz ...

It seems that my longstanding Amazon account is now considered to be an Australian one, at least for the purpose of buying ebooks. I still buy 'physical' (ie pre-digital) books from time to time on Am.com, and co.uk and .fr and .de, with no change from pre-Oz site days.