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Amazon.com - Anyone in the world can buy but not everyone in the world can sell.

Synopsis: Asian authors/publishers are precluded from having their books listed on Amazon.

When our book, SNAPSHOTS! was published, one of the first questions I was asked was, “Is it available for purchase via Amazon.com?” Sadly, my answer has, and continues, to be, “No." The reasons being are follows:

1. There are a few things you need to be aware of first:

 

1. All three of the co-authors of SNAPSHOTS! are Malaysian who presently live in Malaysia.

2. Our publishers, Oak Publication, is a publishing house that is also based in Malaysia.

3. I have no idea how other Malaysian authors/publishers get their books listed on Amazon. I’ve asked one person and the answer was, “I don’t know. My publisher has links in UK, I think.” If you are a person who is willing to help get our books listed on Amazon.com or you're an Asian person who's found a way around this, please be generous with your knowledge/services/products and tell us about it by sending an email to editor@howtotellagreatstory.com

1. SNAPSHOTS! is written in English and basically, the only two Amazon sites that we would like this book to appear on are Amazon.com (United States) and Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom). It’s pointless trying to get the book set up on the other sister-sites because none of us speak French, German, Chinese or Japanese.

    

2. First stop – Amazon.com

When I tried to log on to my 'Seller Account' the first thing I saw was this:

Amazon.Advantage program

If you're a publisher, label, or studio looking for a distribution and fulfillment channel for your products, Amazon Advantage is for you.

Excited, I clicked on the link only to read this comment:

To enroll in Amazon.com Advantage, you must have an e-mail account and Web access, you must be located in North America, and you must have worldwide distribution rights to the Title you want to enroll. ...

That was the end of Amazon.com (United States) as I am not located in North America.

4. What about  Amazon.co.uk?

When I tried to log on to my 'Seller Account' I was faced with this statement under Instructions and Regulations:

 1.1.3 To register as a seller on the Site, unless otherwise agreed by us in advance in writing: (i) you must be an individual that is resident, or a business that is established, in the United Kingdom; (ii) the goods you are selling must be physically located in the United Kingdom at the time of sale; and (iii) the place of supply of any services you are selling must be in the United Kingdom. Please note that if you are selling goods as a trader in the course of your business, you are required by law to make that fact clear to potential buyers in your listing.

So, that was UK out as well.

5. One option, I suppose, is iUniverse. But, I have no experience with them and from the interview I conducted with a Singaporean author, O Thiam Chin, it’s not something to shout about.

6. Are you asking, at this stage, “Why did you not approach a publisher in the UK first?” Here are our answers:

    

1. Why should we? Are Malaysian publishers not good enough?

2. O.K., so as not to sound so rude, let me then say this – one of the things we’ve learned in this industry is that honesty from a publisher is really a very difficult commodity to find. Especially, when a book like SNAPSHOTS! means so much to us. Had we not gone with Oak Publication, we doubt we would have been able to sleep as peacefully as we have. Hence, the desire to go with a local publisher.

7. Where does that leave us?

1. We’ve been told that our stories are “great stories” – just read the reviews. So, if you’re a publisher in the UK/US and would like to get into contact with us, by all means please send an email to editor@howtotellagreatstory.com

2. In the meantime, we happily promote our book using this site (http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com) and the company for payment mechanism we use is 2Checkout (by the way, we could not use PayPal either – for similar reasons – but, that is a different story altogether). If you'd prefer to pay via cheque for a copy of SNAPSHOTS!, please click here.

I hope that gives you an idea of the challenges that we, as Asian authors based in Asia, face. On that note, I would like to invite you to go ahead and confidently buy your copy of SNAPSHOTS!.

Aneeta Sundararaj is the editor of 'How To Tell A Great Story' (http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com ).