Mandarin Companion Graded Reader: "The Secret Garden" 300 char level

[Ania]

You guys have NO idea how long I have been waiting for Chinese graded readers for Kindle!!! I will definitely be getting those, but first I need to get organized with my Christmas shopping I can't wait for more books from you! Since I study Chinese on my own, graded readers are my greatest friend

[querido]

Book #4 The Country of the Blind is out now, and it's on sale at the moment!

[Ania]

Does anyone have any idea why I'm only able to buy books 1 and 2??? I would love to get the other two as well, but for some reason they're not available for me Those restrictions are driving me crazy, especially here, since the first two books are available. 

[ChTTay]

Can't you just sign up to Amazon.com and give a random address? Aslong as you don't post anything to it... That way you can access the .com books.

I only suggest that as another poster mentioned they signed up using a Burger Restaurant address.

[skylee]

#64 reminds me of how I signed up for an online account of the Oyster card, which required a UK zip code and a UK phone number.  I didn't have them, so I copied a zip code and a phone number from the same website and pasted them on the sign-up form.  Success.

[tysond]

Burger restaurant?  At least pick a classy address then... For a long time my US zip code was 90210 (Beverly Hills). 

[Ania]

Really? It's that simple? Just typing in a different address? Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'll definitely try that and see what happens

 

But I still think that I should be able to just get the books using my own regular account without any "cheating". I contacted Mandarin Companion and they promised they would look into it, so hopefully they will be able to figure out what the problem is and make it easier for everybody to buy the books without so much hassle.

 

ETA: OK, so I tried "cheating" Amazon, but unfortunately it didn't work. I still had to login with my real account and real credit card information and the books keep showing me "This title is not currently available for purchase"

 

Oh well, I think I'll wait until the issues are resolved by Mandarin Companion. It really shouldn't be this difficult to buy en e-book

[imron]

Hah, I still use 90210 :-). It's the only zip I know.

[Botterli]

Ania, try to go to "Manage my kindle" -> "Country settings" -> "Change"

The first time I bought stuff it automatically changed it back to Norway, but the purchase still went through. After repeating the exercise a few times it finally stuck.

It's a few years ago, so it may not work that easily anymore.

[Ania]

@Botterli, it worked!!!! Indeed all I had to do in addition to typing in a US address was to change the settings on my Kindle Thank you sooo much pointing that out!!

 

And what is even more awesome is that it worked for the Chinese Breeze readers as well!!!! So you guys just made my Christmas!!

[Balthazar]

Any reason for these restrictions, by the way? I can also see only the first two books...

 

And does changing your country settings on the device have any other "consequences"? The books will still be there if I change back after having downloaded them?

 

(And does this also mean I will save five bucks if I change my country settings before buying them, as the US price is $5 cheaper than my "Norwegian price"?)

[Ania]

Well, I just received an e-mail from Amazon saying that if I wish to continue buying titles that are available only in the US I had to provide a document proving where I reside and that they might restrict my country settings if I don't provide verification, but continue buying US titles I was also not able to buy anything that was regionally restricted.

 

Since I only bought book 4 in the series, getting the other books will be an uphill battle again I just hope that the guys at Mandarin Companion will be able to figure out what the problem is and soon all the titles will be available worldwide. I was told by MC that the books are supposed to be available anywhere. 

[Rufus]

Hi Ania, I contacted Amazon to see what is the deal with The Monkey's Paw and The Country of the Blind not being available in your country. I've also had another person in Germany say that they were unable to purchase these books. This is reply I got from Amazon.

 

We've made your book(s) available in the Kindle store, but only in countries where we are confident they fall in the public domain. Your book may not appear in searches in territories where it is not offered for sale.

 

It appears that these two stories may not be in the public domain in Poland or Germany or a handful of other countries. I'll have to go and review copyright laws for these countries and see if these stories are ok in the countries mentioned. This is something we didn't even think about! I'll try to update you on what we figure out. 

 

FYI, The Monkey's Paw was published in England in 1902 and The Country of the Blind in England in 1904. Both are in the public domain in the USA.

[Ania]

Rufus, thank you very much for the info. That would definitely explain why only the last two books are not available in Poland. But to the best of my knowledge neither of those two stories were ever published here, so it would be difficult for them to fall in the public domain  I'm pretty sure they are only aware of the UK/US copyright laws and public domains and they just simply don't release the books in other countries. I don't really think they spent any time researching what is and what isn't in public domain in each country

 

Well, I hope that something can be worked out so that I will be able to get all the books in the series

[Rufus]

Just a follow up, I found out that both "The Monkey's Paw" and "The Country of the Blind" are not in the public domain in Europe and a number of other countries. According to the copyright laws for the European Union, the works of an author enter the public domain 70 years after the death of the author. W.W. Jacobs, the author of the Monkey's Paw, died in 1943 so his works will enter the public domain next month in January 2014. H.G. Wells, author of The Country of the Blind, died in 1946 and his works won't enter the public domain until 2017. Amazon is aware of this and that is why they blocked sale of these two books in the EU.

 

Stay tuned, because next month you'll be able to purchase "The Monkey's Paw". If we can acquire the rights for "The Country of the Blind" for a reasonable price, you may see that book available in most countries this coming year. 

[Ania]

Thanks so much for the upate!! That's great news about The Monkey's Paw! And I guess we shouldn't have any problems with the next book  

[mprey]

When will you publish traditional editions of these? Please Us traditional learners are already so screwed when it comes to material at this level, surely it doesn't take more than a couple hours to prepare a traditional edition of a book.

[imron]

surely it doesn't take more than a couple hours to prepare a traditional edition of a book.

High quality editions will be far more involved than just this.  There will be differences in vocabulary and word choices that need to be taken in to account, editors and proof-readers with Traditional character background will need to be hired and more.

 

Sure, there are no real difficult problems, but it's more than a couple hours work.  Probably more along the lines of a couple of weeks.

[Rufus]

Hey Mprey, thanks for the note. It's on our list of to-do's. As imron noted, it is a bit more work than one might think, nonetheless doable. 

 

However, I'm curious to know what forces were at play where you learned traditional characters? Did you ever have a choice in the matter or was it more a result of circumstance? (i.e. location, teacher, school program, etc.)

[mprey]

Good to hear. Well I started learning in HK and now live in Taiwan so my interests, social circle, learning materials, and life revolve around traditional characters. I have zero interest in mainland china. People like me may be underrepresented on this forum but we definitely do exist and there is a lot of demand for reading material at this level.