I'm very glad to see this issue raised, because I need your advice for our
museum, the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, in Milan, Italy.

When I tried to register our books with Amazon.com so that we could increase
our visibility (and, hopefully, sales), it turned out to be quite
complicated because we are overseas. They require a U.S. address from which
the books are sent to them, and to which they may send the payments.
Needless to say, since we are a small (but lovely!) historic house in Milan,
Italy, that posed a problem which still has not been solved. The same goes
for Amazon.com.uk, etc. They require the book seller to have addresses in
the countries where they are located, and Italy does not have an Amazon.com
of its own.

The ISBN number issue introduces another wrinkle. Some of our books have
been produced by both small (or very small) publishing companies and large
international companies, and some have ISBN numbers, while others do not
(not necessarily "large company equals book with ISBN number"). Since
presence in Amazon.com wasn't foreseen as an issue, it was not dealt with
during the contractual phase with the larger publishing companies with the
result that even they have not followed through with Amazon.com
registration. I will look up the sites recommended by others, but would like
to know if any one else has had to "retro-register" books which were
published in past years, and even if this is possible, and if they have been
able to convince their publishers to pursue this.

To further complicate matters, not only is the ISBN number necessary for
registration in Amazon.com (and the other Amazon local sites), but the book
has to be registered with a "registration company" (for lack of a better
term) which is like a registration middle man between the publisher and
Amazon.com. They, too, require an address with which to deal in the country
in which they operate. Presumably, the publisher takes care of this phase if
it has been stipulated as part of the agreement.

The upshot is that we are effectively blocked out of registering our books
in any of the Amazon sites which have such good visibility (although one
U.K. registration company may have what they call a "short register"
possibility which I need to pursue which doesn't include the address
requirement).

It is clear that from now on we must deal only with large publishers who
commit in the contract to registering us with Amazon.com (if this kind of
stipulation is even possible). However, this doesn't help me for our books
which we already have published. Has any one else confronted and surmounted
these problems?

Thanks,

Star Meyer
home: [log in to unmask]
work: [log in to unmask]
BAGATTI VALSECCHI MUSEUM
http://www.museobagattivalsecchi.org

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