Category: The Montmaray Journals

A few North American readers have asked me how they can buy the Australian editions of my books, so here’s a list of some on-line booksellers who stock my books and deliver to overseas addresses.

A few notes: Due to territorial copyright laws, my Australian e-books aren’t available to readers outside Australia and New Zealand. Also, postage is very expensive in Australia, so ordering books from here isn’t cheap. On the bright side, non-Australian readers don’t have to pay the 10% sales tax that Australians do, so instead of paying the Recommended Retail Price of $18.95, you only have to pay about $17.00 (and most booksellers offer discounted prices as well). All prices below are in Australian dollars, and at the time I wrote this, one Australian dollar was worth about $US1.06. The FitzOsbornes at War goes on sale here on the 2nd of April, so the books probably won’t be in stock yet, but many of the booksellers below welcome pre-orders.

Abbey’s Bookshop charges $15 delivery for one book (and an additional $10 for each extra book) for delivery to North America, with slightly higher charges for deliveries to Europe. I’ve never ordered books from them, but Abbey’s is a reputable, long-established Sydney bookshop.

Gleebooks charges $10 for a parcel of less than 500g, and $18 for a parcel of up to 1kg, for anywhere outside Australia. I actually weighed The FitzOsbornes at War (guys, the things I do for you!)

and it is slightly less than 400g, so even with packaging, delivery should only cost $10. However, that’s for an untracked parcel – you’ll need to contact Gleebooks for a quote if you want a tracked delivery service. As with Abbey’s, Gleebooks is a reputable and long-established local bookseller, but I haven’t ordered any books from them.

Readings charges “2 x weight (A 400g package will cost $AUS8) with a minimum freight cost of $AU7.95” for deliveries to North America and Europe, so I guess delivery of one book would cost about $10, similar to Gleebooks. I know nothing about Readings except that they’re in Melbourne and they were “Independent Bookseller of the Year” in 2010.

Fishpond charges a delivery fee of “$11.68 + $3.86 per item” to North America (which I think means that delivery of one book costs $15.54) with slightly higher charges for delivery to Europe. I hadn’t heard of Fishpond until recently, and when I tried to find out more, I came across some unhappy customers. Has anyone else had any experience with Fishpond?

Shearer’s Bookshop charges $26 for delivery of one book to North America, with an additional $8 for each extra book. As with Abbey’s and Gleebooks, Shearer’s is a reputable local bookseller, but I haven’t ordered any books from them.

Booktopia charges $27.50 delivery for one book (and an additional $7.50 for each extra book) for delivery to North America, with slightly higher charges for deliveries to Europe. I have ordered books from them before and the books arrived promptly, in good condition – however, I live in the same city as their warehouse, so I can’t say how reliable or prompt their overseas service is.

The Book Depository delivers free to pretty much anywhere in the world. However, it’s a UK company and my books are not actually published in the UK, so they have to order my books from Australia, then send them to you, so it might take a while. Still, free delivery! (How do they actually make any money?)

There are lots of other booksellers in Australia, but I haven’t listed them because their delivery charges are so high (for example, Kinokuniya charges FIFTY DOLLARS to send one little book to the US). If anyone has any other bookseller recommendations, please feel free to add them to the comments below.

Of course, if you live in North America, you can buy the paperback edition of The FitzOsbornes in Exile, which comes out this week, simply by walking into a bookshop and handing over a ten dollar bill and a few coins. So easy!

STOP PRESS: The cover of the North American edition of The FitzOsbornes at War has just been revealed.

I’ve just done a bit of work on my author website – given it a fresh coat of paint, swept the floors, polished the windows, that sort of thing. Oh, and I’ve also added a new annexe and arranged some shiny new articles on the shelves. There’s a photograph of the cover of my new book. There’s an excerpt from the book. There’s a bit of historical background information for readers who’d like to know more about England during the Second World War. There’s even a set of free downloadable Teaching Notes for the novel, if you happen to be a teacher, although the Teaching Notes won’t be available until the book is released in April.

Gosh, two blog posts in twenty-four hours. I don’t know what’s come over me. It must be all the excitement of having a new book out in seven weeks.

Thank you to all those readers who let us know about some of their favourite books. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith was a particular favourite, although there were also a couple of fans of Steve Kluger’s My Most Excellent Year (which sounded like just my kind of book, until I read that it involved baseball). I must also agree with Maddy’s description of the extreme creepiness of The Owl Service by Alan Garner. I haven’t felt the same about owls (or plates with flower designs, or Welsh farms, for that matter) since I read it. I have added a few new books to my To Read list, and am seized with a desire to re-read Emil and the Detectives, which I think I read about thirty years ago.

Congratulations to Skye, Con and Sonia, who each won a signed copy of A Brief History of Montmaray.