Maggie Dana e-mailed me about a UK-based company called The Book Depository. They claim to provide free shipping anywhere in the world, and provide a modest discount on the cover price as well. Maggie says they are estimating a 7-10 day delivery time to the US on her forthcoming novel, which, given the 10-90 day delivery I've had from Amazon UK, looks very good indeed.
If this service works, it knocks the socks off Amazon. And Book Depository seems smugly aware of this fact--on the order page it lists the Amazon.co.uk price including shipping, and even offers you a button to click through and buy it from Amazon UK instead. In the case of the paperback edition of Shock and Awe, they will deliver it for $9.26, as compared to an Amazon UK price of $20.56 after shipping is included.
Of course, Amazon US offers the book for $8.95 plus shipping, so the savings aren't huge relative to ordering from Amazon US; and are slightly higher than ordering it from your local bookseller. But it's nice to have another route.
I plan to order the next few MNW titles from Book Depository and see how it works. I'll keep you posted. And thanks, Mags!
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Hi David:
I'm so glad I found this bookseller. Can't believe I didn't trip over them before now, given members of The Book Club Forum, a reader's forum in the UK, appear to already know of them. Ditto several UK book bloggers. One has to wonder why they were keeping it a secret.
Mags
Hi, Mags--
I guess maybe the free shipping aspect is less compelling if you're already living in the UK?
Anyhow, it looks like a great option!
Hopefully they'll give Amazon a run for its money.
I've been singing the praises of the Book Depository for some time now, David. They're fast and reliable, the books are well-packed and for anyone buying from abroad they're considerably cheaper. They also reply quickly to queries and don't have any questionable issues with certain kinds of book ('adult'!).
Given the two racy little bedroom scenes in my novel, I'm relieved to know the Book Depository won't have issues with them!
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