I've been looking at the fishpond.com.au website, and I've been feeling a little put out.
My reading of what I am seeing is that while fishpond says it is an Australasian bookseller "to be proud of" it is not all that enthusiastic about supporting Australian publishers.
When I looked up Possum Magic today I was first offered on screen the US edition and the other editions mentioned are from the UK but I couldn't find a reference to any of the Scholastic Australia editions. Boo to a Goose has the US edition listed first at a discount and then if you click through you are offered the Australian edition under "Other Editions"at full price. You can buy the UK and US editions of Dragonkeeper and Garden of the Purple Dragon but not the Australasian edition. They're now listing our Red Haze but I think that is because I emailed them that it has been shortlisted in the NZ Post Awards - though I've yet to have a response to that email (and they don't list a phone number and the number I was given by Booksellers NZ gave a "no service" response). There may be some issue with data but as they seem pretty uncontactable, living behind an email "wall", I can't find that out.
Under the "AU Bestsellers" on the fishpond.com.au site today (which I'm assuming is meant to be equivalent to "NZ Bestsellers" on the fishpond.co.nz site) none of the authors are Australian and all of the editions are from the US or UK. On the fishpond.co.nz the top pick of "Fishpond Picks 2008" is the US edition of New Zealand author Lloyd Jones's Mister Pip. The Penguin NZ title is listed elsewhere on the site though.
I'm heading over to New Zealand on Monday and I'm hoping to meet someone from fishpond but I've yet to hear back. I like their passionate claim to be an Australasian bookseller but I'd like to discuss how they are seeing they are fulfilling that, and plans for the future.
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3 comments:
Hi Andrew, you raise an interesting point. NZ-based websites seem to skating on some pretty thin ice -- have you looked at The Nile as well (www.thenile.com.au)? What they offer is legit for NZ customers, given their open market, but I'm not sure that it is for Australians.
Tim Coronel
How annoying and tedious!!
You go guy!! And good luck getting in getting them to underdtand the fundamental idea behind being "Australasian"...........
Let us know!!
I like the car Tim - keeping on spending. And thanks for the enthusiasm, BLC.
Thanks for the tip about thenile. I checked out thenile; both: .co.nz and .com.au. Very interesting. It seems there are a lot of people claiming to Australia's largest online bookstore or similar. I did a quick search and they did have our edition of Dragonkeeper right up front, which was nice. Digging further thenile had all of our David Mortimore Baxter titles (when I looked on fishpond they only had one or two of the newer American titles) but without covers but at 11.99 and the US hardbacks at $34.99. Fair enough I guess. And you can actually ring thenile, while fishpond doesn't want to talk to you on the phone.
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