The Beauties of Multi-national Publication, or “Why Can’t I Get That in Germany?!?”
With the recent publication of THE EXILE, the debut of OUTLANDER: The Musical, and the giveaways of OUTLANDER paperbacks and ebooks, I’m getting a number of queries/complaints from people who live in other countries—all to the effect of, “I tried to get this, but it’s not available in the UK/Australia/NewZealand/Germany, etc.!”
Well, see, the way that publishing works is that a publishing company buys certain specific _rights_ to a book. If you have a decent agent, you _don’t_ sell “worldwide rights” to your manuscript; the agent makes separate deals with individual publishers in different countries. Each publishing contract defines exactly which rights you’re selling—and the “exclusive territory” in which the book can be sold.
Which means that not all publishers buy all books at the same time—and not all publishers choose to promote the books they have in the same way, either.
Right. Now, with respect to THE EXILE, only three countries have so far bought that book: the US (Random House), Canada (Random House Canada), and the Netherlands (De Boekerij) (their translation is not yet released).
You aren’t getting it in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand because Orion—my UK publisher (whose “exclusive territory” _includes_ Australia and New Zealand) is not yet convinced that there’s any market for graphic novels. Ditto Blanvalet Verlag, the German publisher. They doubt many people in their countries would buy it—so they haven’t made an offer for it—and you don’t get it, unless you order it from the US, via Amazon.com, The Poisoned Pen, or some other way.
As for the giveaway of free OUTLANDER paperbacks and ebooks—that’s something that Random House (US) has chosen to do, so those offers are only available _in_ the US. If any of our other publishers choose to do likewise, we’d be very pleased—but I can’t –make- them do it.
Now, the OUTLANDER: The Musical CD’s are a little different, because those are not being distributed by a publishing company, but rather by the producers themselves—that being Mike Gibb and Kevin Walsh, in Scotland. I’ve got them an Amazon.com account, to facilitate the CD’s being more easily available in the US, and _should_ have an iTunes account going pretty soon here. Next step [g] is to see about getting an Amazon.de account, for those German fans who’ve been having to order CDs from Scotland. But that, we _can_ do without it having to be done through a publishing company; it’s just a matter of me or Mike having time to establish all the different avenues of distribution—and I’m on a book-tour, and Mike’s up to his eyeballs in writing the libretto for the stage production of OUTLANDER: The Musical. So it may take us a little while, but we’ll get there. [g]
Meanwhile, if you’d like to let the UK/Australian/NZ/Germany publishers know that there _is_ a market for this particular graphic novel, at least…
I hesitate to put down any publisher’s personal email address here, but here’s some general contact information:
Orion (UK, Australia, and New Zealand – you might want to tell them which one you’re from):
http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/about-orion/contact-us
or possibly
salesinformation@orionbooks.co.uk
Blanvalet Verlag (Germany):
http://www.randomhouse.de/blanvalet/index.jsp (there’s a link for “Kontact/Service” on the left
Dear Diana,
The timeliness of your post is spooky since I have been discussing this very issue with two of your Spanish fans, via Facebook, about why there is no "Echo" in Spanish yet. I have given them appropriate contact info but your post goes a long way in offering an explanation for delays or why a book may not get printed altogether.
Regards,
Midge
Hi Diana,
A few weeks back you let us know about The Exile not being available in NZ (yet). And when I exclaimed my incredulousness you suggested Orion Books could be contacted to be clued in of a possible demand for it. The fact that there are ALOT of Diana Gabaldon fans in NZ and HEAPS of people in this small but mighty county of mine that are virtually gagging to get there hands on The Exile compelled me to do the following…
I've asked everyone in my book club to contact Orion Books, I've suggested to every member of my family (obviously not the little bubbies..) to contact Orion Books, I've called in all favours with ALL friends and given them Orion Books' details to contact. Also everyone I like at my place of work (which is about 75%) has been given instructions to contact Orion Books too !! A large majority of these people are huge fans of youself already and were just as put out by The Exile not being available
here when I let them know.
I estimate maybe 3 or 4 dozen people should have gotten in contact with Orion Books through my "suggestion" in the hopes that this will bring The Exile to our fair shores.
TO ALL KIWI'S READING THIS…LETS BRING THE EXILE TO NZ
** In the meanwhile I simply couldn't wait and have priority ordered my own copy through a local bookstore chain here ** Counting down the weeks and days till it arrives……..
2 weeks and approximately 6 days left to go and counting….
Megan
So glad to hear that the music will be on iTunes! Luuuuuv me some iTunes!
Cheers ~
Emily
http://www.emilybach.net
Dear Midge–
Well, to the best of my knowledge, the Spanish publisher (Planeta) _has_ bought ECHO; delay there is just the natural delay due to a book needing to be translated.
–Diana
The Outlander CD has just appeared on Amazon.co.uk today
I live in Australia and checked out my local bookstores for a week or two and when Exile didn't appear, I ordered it through http://www.bookdepository.com for a great price and it arrived 2 days ago. Love it.
Um, I am in NZ & got The Exile on it's release date from Fishpond.co.nz. (insert nyanyanya noises).
Helen
Hi; I'm in Australia as well and ordered my copy of THE EXILE from http://www.mightyape.com.au . It's a New Zealand company that is now selling here, it shipped from New Zealand within a week, and the cost for the book and shipping was very reasonable.
In Germany Outlander-The Musical can be bought at Sound of Music
http://www.soundofmusic-shop.de/
Just thought I'd mention for Aussie fans out there, I got an email today from Borders offering a "Price Guarantee" that if you find a book that they offer (same edition etc) at a cheaper price at Amazon OR another Australian online bookstore, they will refund you the difference PLUS 10%. (You have to but it at Borders' price, and then apply for a refund by email with links and URLs proving the cheaper price elsewhere.)
Both Borders and Booktopia are currently offering free shipping, so as far as I can figure you can get The Exile from Borders for under $30 at present!
Many thanks to all the resourceful people for sharing ways and means of getting THE EXILE, CDs, etc.! [g]
I guess if you REALLY want the book you will find a way…
the internet makes purchases easy…so long as the seller mails to your country than you can get it.. 
and if you are a Outlander fan you WILL WILL WILL find a way
Cheers Jo-Anne ( Australia )
What about THE EXILE ebooks? I keep asking around and can't get an answer anywhere.
Thank god for Amazon, but shame on short-sighted publishers! Who are they to presume how we'd want to read our Jamie and Claire fix?? I've ordered my copy and can't wait for it to arrive, but have also sent Orion UK an email begging them to reconsider. Hope all your other fans in the UK do the same!
I am from Malta and ordered The Exile from Amazon Uk. I received it after about 7 days and I love it. Romina
Dear Emma–
I'm pretty sure there isn't an ebook form of THE EXILE as yet. It would only work on readers that display illustrations, like the iPad, and I don't think the publisher has thought that far ahead yet. [g] I'll pester them about it, though!
–Diana
Dear Diana,
thank you very much for that posting (although I am not so happy about the fact, that Random House will only sent the free copies in the US – it is understandable….)
I am sure, Blanvalet will not do something similar, because of the "Buchpreisbindung" (which is good for the authors – booksellers are not allowed to give discounts on books – regardlesse where you buy – amazon or small shop – you pay the same price)
The "Buchpreisbindung" will take at least a minimum of 18 month.
And for bestsellers they extended this.
But – thanks again…
Antje
I'm in New Zealand and ordered my copy through MightyApe.co.nz
It was cheaper than Fishpond or Amazon, they don't charge postage and it arrived two days after the US release date.
It's probably cheaper to buy it this way than from a bookstore.
I just finished it! I am in Bahrain as a military dependent. So, thankfully I have a US Federal PO box and was able to simply order it on Amazon.Such a visually stimulating book! I also have a giant "older man" crush on Murtagh, and now it is much worse.Having not read all the books a million times, I almost forget how young Jamie was in the beginning. I really enjoyed myself.It would be very nice to get some of those paperbacks for our base library. The spouses have a book club, and now that it is safe to bring US families back to Bahrain, their are more females here, period.I will try to get my hands on a copy or two for our library.
I ordered my copy of The Exile in advance and received it on publishing day from Amazon.co.uk with no problems (I live in the UK)