A French-speaking Canadian, François Lauzon, has written in the Montreal Gazette of the effect his new Kindle has had on him. Since getting it January 15th, he has had time to learn to use and enjoy it (though it’s new enough that “it still feels like Christmas” to use it). However, he points out a couple of problems that Canadian users experience.
He had hoped to be able to get the New Yorker magazine on his device—it’s available in America for $2.99 per month. However, Amazon was not able to make it available in Canada because “editions of newspapers and magazines available to customers living outside the United States may not contain associated images, tables or graphics.” He said Amazon was going to “look into it.”
But a bigger problem he sees is the lack of availability of French-language titles in the Kindle store. A year after Amazon opened its Digital Text Platform to publishers all over the world, only 6,000 Kindle titles (mostly public-domain books) are available in French on Amazon.com. Other e-bookstores do carry French titles, but they tend to be expensive and EPUB- or PDF-only.
Joanna has already done a great job of pointing out the problems that Canadians have getting a lot of English books, but I hadn’t considered that French books would present an even greater problem. It’s clear that Amazon’s Kindle e-book selection still has a way to go outside of the United States.
And Kobo—the Canadian bookstore—still doesn’t have a dedicated French section 🙂 There is a market. I would buy French books if they were available to me. Alas…
What’s missing in François Lauzon piece is the fact that publishers in Quebec are not really enthusiastic about ebooks. We do have some local bookstores who sell ebooks, but the price is curiously always 75% of the print version.
So, I’m not suprised that he’s having a hard time finding books on the Kindle. Actually, I don’t even bother to look, I know they probably won’t be there.
The question is: Are the ebooks he wants in French available in French? If the answer is no, then why buy any ereader device unless he plans to buy the books in English? If they are available in French but in ePub format and not Kindle format, then why buy a Kindle rather than a Sony, Nook, or Kobo device, all of which read ePub. It seems to me that he didn’t do his homework beforehand.
I think his problem was indicated by Lozeau: blame Quebec publishers. The iBookstore has a clickable box –on the iPhone app–for Livres en français. Maybe he should have bought an Apple product.
My mother in law recieved a Kindle as a group gift…I had advised to get a kobo but I guess they thought the price across the border was worth it?? What I cannot seem to find is any decent canadian content!!! Not just french or Quebecois but a good book like any of the past Giller award winners cannot be found on the kindle. I am surprised..maybe this has changed but I am curious to find out.
Now Amazon have the better book availability for Kindle Canadian user but this not enough. I hope amazon do alot more work for canadian than present.