ECHO's Release Date

Apparently it is now official: the U.S. release date for AN ECHO IN THE BONE will be Tuesday, September 22, 2009.

Here's the link to the pre-order page at Amazon.com.

Unfortunately for those of you in the UK, it appears that the release date of ECHO in the UK is going to be considerably later than that. Here is what Diana had to say on Compuserve today:

What they [the publisher] _said_ is that the UK edition of the book would be released in Australia and New Zealand at about the same time as the US edition is published (it has to be, owing to some bizarre provision of Australian copyright law)--BUT that they didn't mean to release the at-home version _in_ the UK until March of 2010. I have no idea why this is, but that's what they've told me so far.
I think this is really a shame, and makes no sense at all from a marketing standpoint. Why would they make UK readers wait a full six months for the book?

Comments? Reactions? (I can hear the howls of outrage from across the Atlantic already, and I don't blame you one bit!)

6 comments

The Ebon Swan said...

Ok, I'll bite. Why on earth would there be a six MONTH window between release dates? A few weeks I suppose I could see, given the strange way books get published, but half a year is excessive. I'd be frustrated, you bet!

Karen Henry said...

It really seems shortsighted of the publisher, doesn't it? I imagine a lot of people will simply order it from Amazon.com in the U.S. and have it shipped overseas.

Karen

Census said...

I agree that a lot of Uk people will just use Amazon to get a copy earlier.
This seems a strange thing to do...I would love to know their reasoning on this one.

Mitzi H. said...

This may be a stupid question, but don't the UK publishers make money from their sales? And with so many fans in the UK having to order their books from the US or elsewhere to get them 6 months sooner, would they not be losing those sales? Just seems like a very bad business decision to me....but then, what do I know.

There are so many people from all over the world that participate in discussion groups online....just seems so unfair for those not able to read Echo at the same time as everyone else so they can partake in those discussions without having the book spoiled for them.

I see no rhyme or reason for this.

Karen Henry said...

Mitzi:

I completely agree with you!

Karen

Marg said...

As an Aussie, I'm not complaining, but it doesn't seem to make much business sense. It has happened before though. We had Philippa Gregory's book months before it came out in either the UK or the US which just seems really, really strange!

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