I have been wanting to write a blog post like this one for a little while. Given the on and off conversations going on in the book blogging community and over on twitter about blogging, access to books, piracy, libraries and other miscellanous things, I just wanted to take a moment and shout out loud about international book bloggers.
Before getting into this, an important disclaimer about me: I am an international book blogger, I am living in France, yet I know that myself am in a position of privilege. I am working-full time and I have an income, though my budget when it comes to books isn’t great depending on the month (and my love for travelling). I also know that I got lucky enough in the past eight months to get in touch with some publishers and receive some ARCs and books early on and I am so grateful for that. If this obviously makes me an international book blogger that might struggle a little less than others, this blog post is dear and close to my heart. If you are an international book blogger and can think of other ways life would be made better for you, please please share it in comments so I can complete this extensive list and make it a resource for everyone.
It’s not a secret that blogging about books, especially young adult books, is an American-centric kind of system. The YA-books market is massive in this continent, compared to other countries, even in the UK. There was a thread on twitter that, well, despite searching again for hours, I couldn’t find again. But well, this just said exactly it: the young adult book market is veeeeeeeery American.
International book bloggers have their shares of struggles. I, and many other incredible book bloggers, have already mentioned these in blog posts, over on twitter, sharing them on instagram, and shouted about it on countless basis. Yet, there is something that people sometimes, just. don’t. get. No matter how much we scream about this.
? Why don’t you get the book at a library?
BECAUSE THERE IS NO LIBRARY to get my books from. Personally, I have small libraries all around, but with a very small selection of the kind of books I am reading. Some people don’t HAVE libraries AT ALL in the world. Having a library to get your book from is a chance and an incredible PRIVILEGE. Please don’t throw “libraries” around and tell anyone, everyone to get the book at the library, assuming that they can.
? Why don’t you buy the book in a bookshop?
Same answer, THERE ARE NO BOOKSHOPS. I know, sometimes we just don’t have bookshops, or/and we don’t have the young adult books we want there. I am lucky enough to live in France, where bookshops have sometimes a decent, even great selection of books. BUT books are more expensive, because of the shipping fees. Also to be completely honest, closest bookshop with the books I want is 100 km away.
? Why don’t you order online?
It is true that there are incredible websites offering a wide, infinite selection of books. Yet, Book Depository or Wordery do NOT ship everywhere. Amazon sometimes has shipping fees for some countries that are just as expensive as the book itself.
? What about ARCs and e-ARCs?
Book bloggers are in the extremely privileged position to be able to get books early on, review copies. ARCs are physical review copies = hello shipping costs = publishers sometimes won’t, because shipping a book can be REALLY expensive overseas.
e-ARCs are digital review copies, so hello, why not? Because, for me and most international book bloggers, there are so many titles on NetGalley that ends up on “Wish for it”. I can’t even request them. Wish for them. It’s basically wishing I will find signed books on my doorstep and tickets to BookCon in my mail. I never saw a wish come true so far. What about Edelweiss then? Some people are lucky there, I am not. E-ARCs are, just like ARCs, a sort of lottery, for most book bloggers, but even more for international ones.
So, all of that being said, I wanted to get to the heart of this blog post and what really, really matters, being:
? How can you support international book bloggers?
Book bloggers and this community is amazing and I have incredible friends from all around the world, I love them all regardless of where they come from, obviously. Given the complications international book bloggers are facing, though, I am obviously going to talk about them and tell some great steps we could take.
? Host international giveaways
Whether they are book swag giveaways, books, pre-order giveaways, bookish boxes giveaways… if you can, think about making it international. So many book bloggers would be so grateful for that. I completely understand the shipping costs that can come from sending a book far, far away. If you can, though, think about using Book Depository, Wordery or for once, if you are able to cover the costs for one international giveaway yourself to send to the whole world, do it.
? #booksfortrade, #arcsfortrade, #bookishwish
I’m not going to talk a long time on this topic, I’m just going to link to Vicky’s blog post, where she wonderfully talked about this topic. Give it a read!
Recently, another wonderful hashtag has made an appearance over on twitter, #bookishwish. Bookish Wish is a way for book bloggers and readers to wish for the books they would really love to have, but can’t currently afford.
The book blogging community and readers can send them said books without asking for anything in return (if you want something in return, that’s #booksfortrade) and therefore realize a #bookishwish. The generosity of book bloggers and this community has floored me, honestly, this past week. This also made people host giveaways and made them do their very best to help people, even international ones. Check out the hashtag on twitter, boost people’s wishlist if you can. It costs absolutely nothing and will bring someone’s happiness, for sure.
Also, to find out more about #bookishwish, I’d heavily recommend you to read Shealea’s wonderful post explaining the initiative way more amazingly than I ever could.
? Boost international bloggers’ voices
International book bloggers are doing a tremendous job at… well, just being book bloggers. Boosting author’s voices, raising awareness, boosting authors, even sometimes organizing events and everything else.
I could mention JM @ Books Freak Revelations who hosts incredible PH-based events and does amazing things for this community all around and is such a bright soul. I could talk about Shar & Shanti, some of my favorite bloggers in New Zealand, always writing such mindful conversations. I could talk about Shealea, always such a bright, PH-based book blogger sharing incredible work and recommendations on her blog. I could also mention Marta, an incredible soul from Romania deserving all the love. I can mention Pam, super-inspiring and super-hero writer and book blogger from Ecuador, Aimee’s bright, positive voice and love all around from the Philippines, Kat from Vienna, Austria, because she is my favorite human being in the community. I could go on for DAYS.
? Be mindful of time-zones
I love twitter chats, but I haven’t been able to participate in one in a thousand years. Because of time-zones. Let me break this down to you: there are a lot of book chats happening at 8 P.M EST.
8 P.M E.S.T = 2 A.M C.E.S.T = 8 A.M. GMT+8 = 10 A.M A.E.ST
So… I’m in CEST and I am sleeping at 2 a.m, I’m sorry. GMT +8 is Manila (Philippines)’s timezone and people are going to work/school maybe, in Australia (AEST) people might already be at work or sleeping or something. I’m just taking these time zones as an example. I am aware that no time will ever be okay for every single reader out there, the world is big and we can’t accomodate everyone unfortunately. I am just saying that there is a better way to do this. Like, change things up every now and then, 8 PM EST, then maybe earlier, or later, etc.
I know that there are so many things that, despite trying, we can’t and won’t be able to change, as international book bloggers. We can’t magically hope that NetGalley will suddenly try and grant all of our wishes. We can’t change publishers and their policies, nor can we make everyone rich to host amazing opportunites and giveaways for international bookworms all around the world. We can’t make libraries appear everywhere they are needed.
Yet, there are some things we can do, or at least make the first step to try and do it more. Make a giveaway international when we can afford it. Boost our fellow international book bloggers, just because they deserve it. Try to change twitter chats’ times, every now and then, to make international bloggers be part of the game, too.
There are many things I did not include in this blog post that you can do, in order to support international book bloggers, things that should not be forgotten either. They are not particularily “international”, but they are supportive and THEY MATTTER, way more than you think they do, such as:
- Giving their blog visits, likes, comments, sharing what you appreciated about them, linking back to their posts, sharing them on your social medias…
- Donating to their Ko-Fi account if they have one, buying their bookish merch if they do so…
- And so much more, that I listed in my general blog post on how to support book bloggers.
? Other interesting posts to check out, whether you’re an international book blogger or just want to find out more about our issues:
- Lia’s blog post about being an international blogger and having access to books and ARCs.
- Marta’s blog post on NetGalley, Goodreads and International bloggers.
- Shealea’s blog post about reading more books legally, alternatives to piracy and filled with incredible resources for international book bloggers. Read, learn and use them.
- Evellina @ Avalinah’s Books is the creator of a group of international book bloggers, where everyone supports each other and shares tips and tricks. You can ask her to join over on twitter!
- Laura @ Green Tea & Paperbacks wrote a great blog post with resources about ARCs and requesting them as an international reader.
- Michelle @ Book Adventures shares where she gets the books she reads and the resources she can’t use as a South African book blogger.
I really hope this post could be useful to you and that you learned something from it and, most importantly, that this will encourage you in trying to be more inclusive and mindful of international book bloggers, as much as you can within your own means, obviously. Even small things help.
Book bloggers: do you sometimes feel frustrated by the lack of inclusion, if you’re an international blogger? Does this discourage you, sometimes? Would you enjoy being able to participate in, say, twitter chats, if they happened at more decent hours? If you’re from the US, were you aware of all of these struggles?
Do you have other ideas and things that could be done to support international book bloggers more?
What are some of your favorite international book bloggers? Please feel free to share them and give them a shout out in comments!
If you want to support me, (this would be deeply, deeply appreciated, but in absolutely no way mandatory!) I have a Ko-Fi, as well as a wishlist.
Twitter ☂️ Goodreads ☂️ Bloglovin ‘☂️ Support the blog
Rasya says
I actually don’t follow book bloggers much as my blog is in more on the personal, travel style but you’re one of my favourites Marie!
I agree with the libraries part. I live in Tokyo where you know English books are not as easily accessible as English is not widely used here. Even the biggest Kinokuniya in Japan only have one section dedicated to English books so the struggle to get English books are real. I’m lucky because most of my books could be found on Amazon JP and BD ships here but to the rest who are not as unfortunate as me, it must be hard to get books.
Marie says
Oh wow, thank you so, so much, that means a lot! <3<3 <3
I get your struggles, it is the same way for me. I feel pretty lucky to be able to get my books from Amazon or Book Depository, but some other international bloggers don't have that chance, it makes me so sad – and I think it's so important for people to realize that.
Thank you so, so much for your sweet comment! <3 <3 <3 <3
Elizabeth says
This post is pretty in-depth and incredible! I knew some of these things, but I didn’t know too much. Thanks for sharing so honestly about internationally book blogging and what you’ve faced. I’m definitely going to plan on being more inclusive on international book bloggers, especially when I host a giveaway or twitter chat.
Marie says
Oh thank you so much Elizabeth, this makes me so happy! I’m so glad this could be useful and/or that you could learn something through it <3 <3 Thank you for your sweet words and your support, that means a lot! <3
wordandsentence says
This is so true Marie !
Being a French bookworm/bloggers sometimes sucks. I can’t buy my books in bookstores just because they don’t sell books in English.
I can relate so mcuh to a lot of what you wrote !
Otherwise, this is a great post Marie !
Marie says
YAY French bookworm as well!! 😀 It is a bit frustrating – I’m feeling lucky that we still get a small selection of English books sometimes, but… it really depends on the places we live :/
Thank you so, so much for your sweet comment, I’m so happy you enjoyed it 😀 <3
Aila @ One Way Or An Author says
Thank you so much for this post Marie – it’s so excellent and full of vital info! I think especially in America, where I live, people don’t realize the extreme privilege they have when it comes to books. I didn’t even understand much of it until I noticed INTL bloggers not having the option to request books on Netgalley because of their region. It’s so wholly unfair, and definitely a problem that the book industry can – and SHOULD – be working on.
Thank you for these awesome resources, and I’ll continue to help support y’all INTL bloggers! Seriously, you guys work SO HARD and deserve all the love and support. We’re blessed to have y’all! <3
Marie says
Oh thank you so, so much for your sweet words Aila, this means the world to me <3 <3
I get it and I kind of understand it, too, when you are so used to having a library around and for it to be so easy to get books, it can be hard to understand, at first, how different it can be for other people around the world. But I think it's so important to be aware of that and, most importantly, to know our privileges (even as an INTL blogger, being French, I know I also have some privileges compared to other intl bloggers) and to try to boost others that aren't in the same, lucky positions as some can be. Small gestures can already mean the world to international bookworms and book bloggers <3
Thank you so, SO much for your sweet words and endless support, Aila, you're the best <3 <3
laurenisreadingblog says
I am an American blogger, and I had no idea there was such a lack of book availability to non-American’s. I assumed in Europe at least there would be libraries and bookstores available, but I never considered that even if they were, they wouldn’t carry the type of books you like. I have noticed that a lot of e-arcs on NetGalley are only available to US residents, but for those that are internationally available, have you found any that are “Read Now,” or have you been approved for any that you requested, not wished for? While I realize these aren’t always going to be the most recent or buzzed about books, there are a few YAs in there, and some that I really enjoyed. Also, are services like Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited or Prime books available to you? If so, do they have a decent selection internationally? I’m so sad to find out books aren’t so easily available to everyone, and I do hope this improves soon!
Marie says
I’m really happy if you could learn something thanks to this post! 😀 Really, it depends on the countries, but some don’t even have libraries close-by at all, and/or don’t have the books they would like to read at all and don’t even have possibilities to order from Book Depository, at times. That’s when being a bookworm gets really complicated, unfortunately :/
To answer your question about NetGalley : 99% of the books are all with a button “wish for it” for me and I have never seen, since that change back in December 17, a wish being granted.
I can’t really speak on the Amazon Kindle Unlimited issue, since I don’t have a Kindle, so I couldn’t know. I have another e-reader, a Kobo and I do have a fairly good selection of books available there, though sometimes they are quite expensive ,too, even as e-books. I can only speak for my case though, I don’t know how this can be for other international people :/
Thank you so, so much for your sweet comment <3
Aj @ Read All The Things! says
Helpful post! I’m hosting a giveaway right now, and I always try to make them as international as possible. I can’t afford to pay $50+ for international shipping, so I have to rely on Book Depository. I know that leaves some people out. If it makes people feel better, an American has never won one of my giveaways. They’ve always been won by people in Australia or Europe.
Marie says
Oh thank you so much, I’m so happy you enjoyed it <3 <3
I completely understand – shipping prices are way too high sometimes, especially when it comes to books. I wish we could change that, but I guess we can't ? Book Depository or INTL giveaways whenever we can afford it is a great choice though and it's more inclusive than just US. I know this means a lot to me – and I am sure it does for other bloggers, too – to see a giveaway being hosted internationally <3
Thank you so much for your sweet words and for your support towards international bloggers, you're the best <3 <3
tasya @ the literary huntress says
Ahh yess this is a very well written post and you’ve touched all the points! And yes, despite this topic has been discussed over and over again, there will ALWAYS people who don’t think much of our struggles. Another thing I might add for the bookstore and libraries point, sometimes the book are not available due to censorship. For example, LGBTQ+ is not a topic openly discussed in other countries, thus some books talking about the community might be censored in certain countries. Another point you touch is timezones, because yes, in a world where everything is us centric, I can’t even count how many times I stayed up all night or wake up early only to join chats in a certain fandom. But I also understand that it’s impossible to cater to all timezones, but I would appreciate it if sometimes, just sometimes, people work out a decent hours for chats and stuff 🙂
Marie says
Oh thank you so, so much, I’m so happy you enjoyed this post <3 <3
I agree with you – there will always be people disregarding international bloggers' struggles and that makes me so sad and so mad, as well 🙁
OH YES this is such a great point, I didn't think about the censorship part when I drafted that post, you're so right. It's really too bad to see how many books are not accessible due to this 🙁
I'm with you about the twitter chats! Obviously it is impossible to make everyone happy, but changing things up every now and then could be nice 🙂
Thank you so, so much for sharing your thoughts on the topic, that means a lot <3
Between the pages says
I live in Qatar and recently a huge library opened and I am so thankful.
Marie says
OH YAY that’s fantastic, I’m so happy for you!! 😀
The Girl in Boots says
Oh man. The library one. Most libraries here don’t really have YA books. The one I currently go to is a lending library, which means I have to pay 10% of the price of the book for a period of 2 weeks. But it’s cheaper than actually buying a book, and has really great titles.
There are bookshops here, but they never have the books I want (not too many YA titles) and is super expensive . Which means I have to order off Amazon…
I LOVE this post so much! You voiced so many frustrations that I feel all the time! And loved the posts you linked! ❤️❤️❤️
Marie says
Oh wow, I had no idea that libraries could work out this way, by paying 10% of the price of the book – where I live, libraries have a yearly subscription kind of fee. I don’t go to libraries though because they don’t have YA books either :/ I’m glad that you’re finding great titles in your library though, that’s GREAT! 😀
I’m really glad if you found yourself less alone by reading this post – we have our share of struggles, but we also love books so much, our dedication is even bigger this way, let’s put it that way 😀
Thank you so much!! <3 <3
S. J. Pajonas (spajonas) says
Speaking as an author here! If you find an author you like, don’t hesitate to contact them with your blog details and ask about their ARC teams. Or you can also sign up for their newsletter so you can find out about sales, which should make it more affordable to buy books. Some authors even give away free books to their newsletter subscribers. I would love to be able to get up early or stay up late to hold chats for international book bloggers, but I’m also a mom of two kids and I’m completely KNACKERED once 8PM Eastern rolls around. There are days when I wish time zones didn’t exist! My biggest tip is ebooks. Ebooks are what I sell the most of, what I’m willing to give away. I don’t even give away paperbacks to US readers anymore! It’s too expensive (and I make way less than minimum wage as an author) to ship them even locally. Such a bummer because I love seeing my book in a blogger’s hand.
Marie says
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on the topic as an author’s POV! Authors newsletters are such a good resource, I love following my favorite authors’ news this way as well and it’s great when they pay attention to their international readers in their giveaways 🙂
I completely get it, about the time zones and not being able to stay up late or get up early – it is tricky to organize everything well and I understand sometimes, even impossible for some authors. If some chats managed to change their hours, even if it’s just one time, for instance, 10 A.M E.S.T, that would make mid/end of the afternoon for Europe and beginning of the night for the Philippines for instance. I feel like there are things that could be done every now and then, obviously depending on authors’ and chat hosts’ availabilities 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on the topic! 😀
Positively Crystal says
I love this post!! I am not an international book blogger and therefore had no idea of the troubles faced for those who are! After reading this post I will now make an effort and do what I can to help out. Heading over to twitter to check out the hashtags you listed now!!
Marie says
Oh thank you, I am so happy if you could learn something from this post – thank you for the support, it means a lot! 😀 <3
Vicky Who Reads says
Thank you so much for linking to my post & this is SUCH an awesome discussion you’re holding! It’s been really heartwarming to see more and more people talk about the struggles of international bookworms and bring attention to how they don’t have the same privileges US bloggers do. Wonderful post, Marie–thank you so much for sharing because we NEED more posts like this <333
Marie says
Oh you’re so welcome, thank YOU for constantly writing incredible and important posts <3 <3
I agree, it's been good to see people talking about this more and more – it's so important to underline that and for people to remember that, too. I can't even remember how many times some people told me to "just go to the library". It's frustrating sometimes.
Thank you so, so much!<3 <3
Pamela Nicole says
THIS! I love it Marie! You always have a way of talking about these things phrasing it just right. Sometimes when I talk about this I fear I may come across as pushy? As if I’m complaining -well, I am, but not for the sake of being negative!
Anyway! Thanks so much for mentioning me here, you’re so sweet! I find that bloggers from other countries are so much fun to follow because in their blogs and social media they share the places they visit, and their lives and their FOOD, and I just live vicariously through them XD (I love it when you travel and post pics about it because EUROPE)
There are certainly many things that we can’t change, but I like your twitter chat suggestion! True, I haven’t been active in Twitter in forever, but still, I used to be more in the loop about them, even when I stopped hanging out there. With morning and night classes, it just became impossible to catch the chats. It’s sad because I got to meet so many people that way! I totally support changing up the times so more people have the chance to participate. (Also, do you know if someone has a directory of bookish twitter chats? I think I saw one once but I don’t remember and I didn’t need it then, but it’d be so helpful now!)
I also wanted to say that those posts you shared are awesome! In fact, thanks to Laura’s, which I’d already read, I could get in touch with PRHinternational and got accepted to receive an ARC directly to my country. It’s the first time that has ever happened, and it means so much to me. I always use my mom’s US address in emails so that it won’t inconvenience publishers.
Phew, that was a long comment, but this post is so thoughtful! XD Stay awesome :3
Marie says
Oh Pam, thank you so, so much, your words mean everything to me, really <3 I get it about being afraid to be negative, I really was afraid of that when I planned this post, but then… I thought, oh whatever, this is too important to me to just, not write it ?
I AM SO HAPPY I AM NOT ALONE HERE ? I do that too haha, I love bloggers from all around the world, because it's so amazing to see them chatting about what we love the most, books, but also randomly seeing parts of the world too, whenever they travel or just share bookish pictures and everything. Plus, just the fact that we are talking with people miles and miles away is incredible, too <3
I'm with you – I participated in a chat a couple times and had such a fun time, but now… well I can't NOT sleep and go to work like a zombie ? I don't know if there was a book twitter chat directory, that could be really useful, I'm going to do some digging for sure! 😀
OH THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY you got an ARC, yay! <3 You deserve it <3 <3 <3 It's so good whenever we get these opportunities as INTL bloggers, it means so much <3
Thank YOU so much for taking the time to read and leave such a sweet comment, you're the best <3 <3
Jolien @ The Fictional Reader says
This is such a great post! As an international blogger, I couldn’t agree more. Sometimes, it seems like we’re screaming these things over and over again but no one is listening. I’m going to try my hardest to support more international book bloggers. Maybe I should do a Twitter ask so people can shout out their blogs?
Love this post!
Marie says
That’s exactly it – I can’t even remember how many times these topics came up and we have to repeat ourselves and mention that INTL bloggers just don’t have the same accessibility at all. It gets repetitive ?
I’m really happy if I could inspire you to support international book bloggers more <3 <3 And that twitter thing is a fantastic idea – you'll have to let me know if you do it, I'll boost your tweet and everything 😀 <3
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! <3 <3
flowersinthebrain says
loved this!
Marie says
Oh thank you, happy you enjoyed it 🙂 <3
Olivia @ Purely Olivia says
This is an amazing post, Marie!❤️I live in the USA, and I really wasn’t aware of all these struggles. It makes me really sad to see everything that international bookworms have to face, and I hope that someday all will be equal as far as books go. Thank you for educating me on this, and for sharing ways to help! 🙂
Marie says
Oh thank you so much, Olivia – I’m really happy if you could learn something thanks to this post! <3 <3 It would be a dream to be all equal, but really it depends on each country. Making efforts, within our own means and boosting and trying to help international bloggers is already something we can do <3 <3
Thank you so much! <3
theperksofbeingnourablog says
This is such an amazing post! You put so much hard work into this ❤ we should all definitely work on something like this and spread more awareness. Love It!
Marie says
Oh thank you so, so much for your sweet comment, it means a lot <3
Books Teacup and Reviews says
Amazing post, Marie! I can relate to all the points you discussed above.
I’m from India. In my hometown, we have two library, one is public library that has more non-English novels than English one (that is also not latest ones) another is British Library which is far from my house and it’s not public library so NO to non-members! The city I live in with my husband doesn’t have libraries!
We have shops but again you won’t find all the latest books! (I still can’t see books by Marie Lu, Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir and many more in Crossword)
I have same issues with NetGalley, “wish for it”. It’s impractical for publishers or author sending copies overseas.
Just yesterday I won a copy in giveaways which was second in series. So I checked all other books by that author on Amazon and guess what they were all kindle formats. No paperbacks available for Indian website, it was available only for US site!
All this make me think ‘I wish I could change country’. Ah, it’s damn frustrating sometimes.
Marie says
Oh thank you so, so much for your sweet comment – I’m so happy you could relate to this post in a way, but also sad you are encoutering some of these struggles 🙁 <3
It seems so easy sometimes and so natural, in some part of the worlds, to get into a bookshop or library and find immediately what you are looking for, I wish everyone could have that same chance.
Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that, that's so frustrating 🙁 I'm with you on that, sometimes I wish I could have the same opportunities and chances when it comes to books, or just accessibility to them overall. I wish it were simple, but I guess we are very, very dedicated bookworms, since we go through even more trouble to read the books we want haha 🙂
Thank you so, so much for your sweet comment! <3 <3
Books Teacup and Reviews says
You’re welcome! ❤ Well said! After all the limitations we find a way to read books that’s what matters and shows love for reading. 🙂
Marie says
Exactly! 😀 <3
Books Teacup and Reviews says
Reblogged this on Books Teacup and Reviews and commented:
This was Amazing post by Marie! I can relate to all the points discussed in her post.
Books Teacup and Reviews says
Reblogged on – https://booksteacupnreviews.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/how-to-support-international-book-bloggers/
Tiana (The Book Raven) says
LOVE This!! We need to always be mindful of supporting our international book worms. I am lucky to live in America and have greater access to arcs and books in general. I’m hoping that in the future YA and libraries are something that all bookworms can have access to.
Marie says
Thank you so, so much for your sweet words and support, Tiana <3 That would be a dream haha 🙂 <3
flippingthruthepages says
What an incredible post Marie! Thank you ?
Yes to all these points. We certainly don’t have big libraries which have new reads or the kind of books we prefer. Even if there are some libraries like these, they are only in metro cities and qell not everyone is living in a big city. Even all the book events, book sales, all happen in big cities, which is also rare as compared to YALC and Bookcon and other major book events.
And yes, Amazon do ship here but we can’t affors all the new releases. Hardcovers are so costly and paperbacks often take more time to come.
Publishers don’t send us internationally because of the shipping costs. Yes, all of these struggles are real and US and UK bloggers should definitely respect that.
I liked your point about tome-zones for twitter chat. It always happens in midnight! I used to be a part of a group but most of the chat was happening in midnight And I felt out of the loop everytime.
Well, there are so many incredible international bloggers to name. You, off course, comes at forst on my list ? Then there is Evelina, Aimee, Fanna, Jackie from Death by Tsondu, Dani, CW (who is coming back to blogging soon), Lia amd many more!
Thank you for such a wonderful post!
flippingthruthepages says
Please ignore the typos ? I typed all of it in a single go and that too on phone so ?
Marie says
I did not spot that many typos, don’t worry about that at all! 😉 <3 <3
Marie says
Oh thank you so, so much for your sweet comment, Sim, that means a lot <3 <3
Oh the big events, I am dreaming of getting there someday, just as well – or I wish I had more opportunities and more authors visiting, too, that would be amazing haha 🙂
New releases are so expensive sometimes – I know I am lucky enough to be able to get new releases for a reasonable price, but I also know that's not the case everywhere and it makes me so sad 🙁
I understand – twitter chats seem like such a great way to connect with other bloggers, too, but we can't ever make them and that frustrates me so much.
Aww thank you – thank you for mentioning so many other bloggers, I love all of them SO much!! 😀 <3
Nina Rapsodia says
You deserve a BIG AAAMEN HONEY!
I have to tell you I feel the stuggle because me, as a Colombian reader = international reader I feel myself excluded. I mean I do not have colaborations with publishers (despite being in the business for like 8 years) and I also do not have BD or Worderly shipping here (recently they removed us from they list because the books were getting lost in the mail, and still you write to them and they do not answer or do not know when they going include us back). We have amazon but is SO EXPENSIVE! I mean shipping a book cost $10 dollars why is like the price of a book. Reading in english like that is so EXPENSIVE. Also books in spanish are SO EXPENSIVE TOO! arg!
I have got e-arcs requests denied because I am not from the US and that frustrates me a lot. Yes, I have got other one accepted and that’s great and I am really thankful. But still I am angry because books in my country are not cheap and if you want to buy books in english is EEEXPENSIVE AS HELL.
Thank you for this post and I will be supporting international bloggers!
Marie says
Aw thank you so, so, soo much for your sweet words and your comment! <3 <3
I'm so sorry to hear that – it's terrible that BD and Wordery removed you from their shipping list, that really sucks 🙁 I have heard about shipping costs from Amazon for some countries, it quickly gets so expensive, even more than a book sometimes, it shouldn't happen 🙁
I understand your frustration here – I wish there was a way for you, us and all international readers in that case to be able to get approved for e-arcs for instance, no matter what their location is, after all, e-arcs are digital… I don't really understand all the rules there :/
Thank you so much for your sweet words and support – we are dedicated bookworms and we keep on fighting despite the struggles, that's important <3
Lois says
As someone that works in a library, I can 100% vouch for what you said about the limitations of those establishments. Living in the UK I’ve also seen how YA still isn’t a fleshed out marketing establishment, especially beyond London cause our YA stock at work is very dated so it makes my job harder when it comes to promoting the library for Young/New Adults. The only reason we have some of the new releases, like the Hate U Give is that I recommended we buy it in.
I must confess that with my mood reading tendencies I’ve not been actively involved on the arc front, but it would be nice to have the opportunity to actually request the books and not just wish for them.
This post is so important because it is so easy for people to assume that international bloggers have access to all the same facilities that American’s do when it is clearly not the case.
Marie says
YES! I saw a tweet recently about the differences between US and UK when it comes to the YA book market and I was surprised, I thought it was a bit more developed, but everything really is US-centered, I guess.
Yeah it would be so good for so many readers, especially the ones depending on these kind of books to be able to read new releases – otherwise some people can’t afford them for years, or not at all 🙁
Thank you so, so much for your sweet comment, Lois, I’m so happy you enjoyed this post. It is my goal to make people more aware of everything and, maybe, for the most privileged ones to pay a bit more attention to that, too <3
Kat Impossible says
Once again you are being a shining example of how to be more thoughtful in this community! I already told you this when we first chatted about you having the idea for this post, but I love the choice of topic! It’s sad when people don’t understand that availability of certain books is an actual privilege. I get especially annoyed with the library comment, even though I hear some of them are getting better at it. But it’s even easy things like Amazon Unlimited and such that just isn’t the same everywhere. I cannot buy the US e-books from Amazon for example, I have to use the German kindle shop and the prices are NOT the same. It’s so frustrating every time there’s a Twitter thread on YA books that are currently on sale as ebooks and when I check on my device, it’s not happening. (I just brought up that topic because I saw someone in the comments asking about it.)
You also know that I haven’t used Netgalley in moooonths, but I only ever had one wish granted and that was before the system change. But at least it was for a book I really wanted haha
Thanks so much for writing this post! Thanks so much for mentioning me! You are one of my favourite blogger/people and that will never change <3
Marie says
Kat thank you, this means the world to me <3 <3 <3 I was quite nervous to post this, I'm happy it has been well received and that people could connect with it all! <3 <3
I thought about you while I wrote that library paragraph, and of that comment you got about it. It is so frustrating that everyone keeps getting comments like these, we are an international community and I think, even just adding a little "you should get the book at the library, IF YOU CAN do that", would already be progress haha 🙂
OH no! I didn't know that at all, that's so frustrating! I don't use Kindle deals, since I don't have a kindle, but that's so annoying. Everything isn't the same on every Amazon interface and sometimes, I guess people assume it just is 🙁
Oh you're so welcome, you're always my favorite person <3 <3 <3 Thank you so much for your sweet comment <3 <3 <3
Kat Impossible says
Even if the American voices are often louder or more visible, we ARE an international community and I never doubted this post would find its audience 😉
The whole library argument just can be really condescending and I just shut down completely when I feel like a person is that way. It would be an improvement to add those little words at the end of thier argument.
I guess territorial rights and stuff still apply for ebooks, which is why the deals aren’t the same everywhere. It’s still annoying though.
Marie says
Aww you’re too sweet <3 <3
I agree – I wish more people would get that and do this automatically when talking about libraries. Maybe someday that will happen 🙂
Yes, I guess there's something with territorial rights, but it's so frustrating haha.
Inge | The Belgian Reviewer says
I see the library recommended so much to get ‘free’ books but I have the same problem.. libraries here have only a small selection of English books, the won’t follow a new series and don’t even get me started on ebooks. They just discovered an ereader and can provide them with 10 books on them. I wanted to join a library abroad just so I could use Overdrive and get recent books but it proved impossible. You really have to be a resident or they need to see you in person. Hear hear about international giveaways, I’m always grateful for bloggers who do this. I’ve also organised two giveaways myself that were international and I sent one novel to the USA. I love the initiative of the wishlist but nobody requests those I have or offers those I’m looking for.. lot’s of fantasy but sweet ya romance or thrillers are not in the picture. I look for swaps but that also is always with a mention of US only. Sorry for the rant.. there’s a lot I’m grateful for though, and I really enjoy it so much when I score a free book ?
Marie says
I get really frustrated by the library comment – I feel like, just adding the “if you are able to do that” to the “you should try to get the book from a library” sentence, would already be some kind of progress. Too many people assume we all HAVE libraries, while some don’t have any library at all, or/ and that if libraries are there, that they have the books we want to read. :/
I always appreciate people trying to make an effort to do one international giveaway – I get the shipping costs issue, but if they use book depository it’s already a bit more inclusive and/or save up for once to do something worldwide is so appreciated, too. <3
I'm so sorry to hear the wishlist hasn't been working out for you – I'm certain there are bloggers like you out there though and that you'll find books to swap, hopefully! <3 <3
Thank you so, so much for sharing your thoughts and for your sweet comment! <3 <3
Consu says
All of this!! Great post, as an international reader I’m lucky enough to own a kindle and earn enough money so the rate dolar-to-peso doesn’t kill me but I’m sadly the minority.
Marie says
Oh thank you so, so much for your sweet comment, I’m glad you enjoyed this <3 <3
I think it's so important to remember this and to try and support international bloggers and the ones that aren't as privileged as others 🙂 <3
Sissi @thebookworld20 says
This is a great post Marie!
I’m not an international book blogger as I live in Canada, but I’ve heard about the struggles of international bloggers/readers. Especially the time zones, I can imagine what it’s like to have all blog posts/tweets happening when it is like 2 AM! But you still do such a great job interacting with bloggers which is so awesome. I didn’t know before that international readers don’t have access to many books and bookstores, I was surprised when I read that. For me, it’s so easy to go to the bookstore or purchase books online with free shipping; and the closest library is only 5 minute drive from my house. I really hope more libraries and bookstores will be built in other countries! It’s sad that it’s so difficult in some countries to get a book easily!
These tips you gave were great, such as hosting international giveaways and just supporting their blogs in general! When I host a giveaway I’m definitely going to try to make it international 🙂
Marie says
Oh thank you so much, you’re so sweet! I’m really happy you enjoyed it and that you could learn something through it all <3
It is a bit frustrating – I log in the morning on twitter and see a bunch of fun tweets from a chat and I'm sad to arrive after everything has happened, but… I'm getting used to it, too, I guess haha 🙂
It is difficult for some readers – some international readers are lucky enough to get bookshops with a still good selection or a library, while some others don't have any of these at all, which makes accessibility to books even harder, unfortunately 🙁
Thank you SO much for your sweet words and your support for international bloggers, this means a lot <3 <3 <3
Sofii @A Book. A Thought. says
This is such an important post, thank you so much for taking the time to do so. As an international blogger (Argentinean) I’m very grateful for this type of post? , I agree with absolutely everything you say here and I think the most important thing is that people who live in places like USA, understand how things work for us and how they can help to change things a bit ?
I think the most unjust thing has undoubtedly been what happened with Netgalley, it was from where I got most of my ARCs and it’s a pity that suddenly the rules has changed and although it’s something that publishers have decided, I don’t really get it yet. ?
I hope you have an incredible month and anything you need, I’m here for you, and for all the incredible international bloggers that are part of this wonderful community.?
We have to stay together and help each other?
Marie says
Oh thank you so, SO much for your sweet comment and for taking the time to share your experience <3 <3
I agree with you, it is so frustrating, the whole NetGalley situation, especially how it happened overnight. I have to admit that I don't really understand how or why this happened, either… I don't know all of the rules of publishing though, so I can't speak for them, but I wish I could understand haha.
Thank you so, SO much for your sweet words and support, this means SO much <3 You're so right, the international blogging community has to stick together and boost each other and help each other <3 <3
Lauren Becker says
I knew most of this, but really it’s from people talking about it online, so I appreciate that. I don’t like when people say “use the library” because not everyone has one and that should be more known. Being in the U.S. does make you more privileged in that way – though not all places in the U.S. have libraries either, or good ones, but it’s still something for people to remember. I don’t have the funds to ship too far away, so I try and do as many giveaways via The Book Depository as I can. I know it’s not all countries, but I feel like it hits the majority so it’s a start!
Great post – thanks for sharing!
-Lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.net
Marie says
I agree with you, I don’t like when people mention “use the library”, like it’s something everyone can do, while access to libraries is so different, depending on which part of the world we live in.
I understand that – I really wish shipping wasn’t that expensive, it is almost shocking to see how much a book shipping can be?! Book Depository is a start for sure, it already is more inclusive than just the US and it can make some international blogger’s day, so that’s fantastic 😀
Thank you so much for your sweet comment and for your support!! <3 <3
Beth (Reading Every Night) says
See I can’t really imagine how challenging it must be being an international book blogger not in the US or UK, even though like you said book blogging is a very US-centric thing being in the UK has helped me when it comes to books.
I get what you mean about the libraries though, the library near me hasn’t updated their book catalogue in years so I can never find new releases there, and honestly buying books new can be so expensive even if you don’t take into account the shipping fees!
I remember when NetGalley introduced their new way of working for international bloggers and it just sucks. I’ll keep my fingers crossed your wishes are granted but in the meantime I hope the Twitter hashtags work out for you and all the other international bloggers.
Great post Marie. 🙂 <3
Marie says
Honestly, I am impatient to go to the UK and spend half a day in Waterstones’ …… Sorry, I feel like I had to say this ? There is something about being able to go to a bookshop where they have amazing books. I LOVE IT ?
The library system can be frustrating at times everywhere, I guess :/ I wish they would update their releases better for you, maybe you can put in some requests? 🙂
Thank you so, so much for your sweet comment and your support, ,Beth <3 <3
Beth (Reading Every Night) says
For me I treat myself every so often and go to the Piccadilly Waterstones branch because that has the best selection of them all, and it’s the biggest! 😀
The most annoying thing about it is they spent a lot of money on a brand new building but didn’t update the books or anything, which strikes me as a big waste.
That’s all right! 🙂 ❤️
Marie says
Oh yes, I only went there once, last time I was in London and I felt like I was in HEAVEN haha. I can’t wait to go back there 😀
Oh damn, that’s too bad 🙁
Beth (Reading Every Night) says
I feel like it’s worth a trip to London just for that Waterstones branch! 😀
Marie says
Agree! 😀
CJR The Brit says
International blogger here!!! The Netgalley ‘wish for it’ makes me want to cry. In over a year I have got 1 book I have asked for, I know it’s a privilege to get but before the change I used to get most of what I asked for.
We have libraries here but they never have any books I want as they are so underfunded.
Marie says
YAY, hi fellow international blogger!! 😀
I get the struggle, it is so frustrating to see that “wish for it” button and… well, to never hear from the publisher again. I’m happy you got a wish granted though, that means it is NOT impossible, it gives me hope ?
At least, I hope this post and the comments and everything reminded you that you are not alone in this and these struggles, and that you’re a dedicated, amazing bookworm <3
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! <3 <3
mortalreader says
Fantastic post Marie, you bring so many points to light and also give people a way to overcome them. Libraries really aren’t a thing there for everyone, even mine here in the UK is very small but I am so greatfull to have it’s few shelves of YA because some have no libraries at all.
I think this post is really going to help a lot of people understand others situations as well as understanding their own privilege.
Marie says
Ahhh Hannah, thank you so, SO much for your sweet words, this means a lot <3 <3
I'm so happy to hear you have a library with a great selection of books, that's SO great! 😀 I wish that more people would understand the privilege and awesomeness of having a great library close-by 🙂
Thank you so much for your sweet words and support, this means SO much <3 <3
Dezzy @ The Thoughtful Voice says
Ahhh thank you so much for writing this post, Marie! This was honestly really educational and informative to read. ? Thank you for sharing all these things about international book bloggers and resources! As someone who lives in the U.S., I realize how lucky I am to have such easy access to books and libraries. I’ll definitely continue supporting international book bloggers like you and others, to the best of my ability! ❤️
Marie says
Oh Dezzy thank you, I’m so, so happy to hear you could learn something from this post and that you enjoyed it <3 <3 And thank you for your support, this means a lot to me and other international bloggers, you're the best! <3 <3 <3
booksaremylifesilvy says
Hi Marie, this is wonderful post! I am a international book blogger since 2011 and it’s still difficult,I fill like I am on the bottom.I’ve tried every possible thing, but it’s hard.Thank you for tips you’ve shared here, I will follow all of them and we will see maybe it would work.?
Marie says
Oh thank you so, SO much for your sweet comment <3
I understand the struggles of being an international bloggers and I hope that some posts I shared here might help – also know that we and the community are always there to support you and lift you up and know that you are doing amazing <3 Your dedication to read despite the struggles IS amazing 🙂 <3
tiffany @ readbytiffany says
Marie!! This post is so so so wonderful ❤️Being a part of this community has helped me recognize so much about the disparity between US and international bloggers. It’s really teaching me a lot about how lucky I have it. I didn’t know until this year how different libraries and bookstores are internationally! I rely so much on my library I could not imagine the financial toll it must take to keep up with all the new releases and just be a reader in general. ?
I love that you included ways for us to support international bloggers too! I think it’s really helpful to US based bloggers to know how we can actively helping international bloggers, and I know that I’ll definitely be following the ways you’ve mentioned to be more inclusive and supportive. ?
Marie says
Oh thank you so, so much Tiffany, I’m so happy you enjoyed this post and that you could learn from it <3 <3 I find it incredible how dedicated this community is, even the ones that have it hard and don't have the same access to books. I know I'm fairly lucky in that area despite being international, I admire everyone keeping up with their passion despite the struggles <3
Thank you so, so much for your support, it means the world < 3<3
Jamie @BubblyBooks says
Great post Marie! As a reader who has a really great local library I often take it for grated and forget how hard it is for some people to live near library’s let alone ones that have a good YA section! This post really opened up my eyes to what being a blogger is like when you live around the world- thanks for sharing and I hope to keep this in mind when supporting international bloggers!!
Marie says
Oh thank you so much Jamie – I am so happy if this could be helpful and made you a bit more aware of international struggles when it comes to accessing books! 😀 Thank you for your sweet words and support, it means so much! <3
Carolina @fictionologyst says
This is such an interesting post Marie. I’m from Indonesia, we have public libraries but they didn’t have fiction section, they all non fiction! And we have some bookstores here that sell YA fiction, they are pretty update, but you can’t find older books in there. Book Depository is my only saviour! I have no luck in ARCs and E-ARCs. I’ve tried bookishwish but I’m not lucky too LOL! At this point I really don’t know how to support other intl blogger apart from hosting an intl GA and boosting them!
Marie says
Thank you so, so much, I’m so glad you enjoyed this post and thank you for sharing your experience! <3 <3
I'm glad you at least can rely a little bit on Book Depository and I hope you will get some of your wishes granted, don't give up <3 I think that hosting giveaways and boosting others' voices whenever you can, just even by leaving a comment and showing appreciation already goes a long way and makes us feel like we're doing great, and that matters A LOT <3
Thank you so much <3 <3 <3
Jennilyn ?? (@RurouniJenni) says
As a small international book blogger myself, I know it can feel alienating sometimes. So thank you for rallying the blogosphere to support and cheer for us. This is really a heart-warming post.
I was disheartened when Netgalley restricted it’s access to international readers to just “wishing for it” and Goodreads giveaways are now totally unavailable. I don’t even want to start with Edelweiss, I never got approved for anything I requested there.
I am so easy to please, as far as supporting goes. INTL giveaways perk me up even though for the longest time, I don’t think I have ever won any. My heart leaps up when someone comments on my blog. One thing that helped me gain interaction in my blog is adding my posts to link-ups on bloggers with a wide audience. I link-up regularly on 2018 Discussion Challenge hosted by U.S. bloggers Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight and Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addition. They have giveaways too, open INT, so my heart is happy.
Marie says
OH thank you so, so much, that was exactly my goal with this post so I’m so happy it came through. Thank you for your sweet words and comment, that means a lot <3
It really is sad how complicated everything is and I feel like it just keeps on getting harder with these new restrictions somehow. I don't know where they come from, if it's a territorial rights thing or something else, but it's frustrating :/
I'm so happy you found positive things and are looking at this in a good way – I love all the INTL giveaways I am spotting and I am so grateful to see more and more happening out there, it warms my heart. I also love comments and support from the community all around, that's the best thing ever <3
Thank you so, so much for your sweet comment! <3 <3
Anushka @ Going Through Books says
THIS POST IS EVERYTHING. I’m from India, and though we have sufficient books here, we’re nowhere near the American book market. I’m actually relieved to find the reason behind Netgalley’s Wish For It – I thought it was only happening with me ?
Marie says
Oh no it’s not happening with you only haha, it’s happening for every international blogger I know, don’t worry about that haha. That’s sad 🙁
Thank you so, so much for your sweet comment!! <3 <3
Keira says
This is such a good post! Living in the UK I probably have the most privilege when it comes to books outside of the US, but still. Another thing is that not only are international book bloggers having this kind of problem, but international authors! Especially in YA, nearly all of the popular, successful authors come out of the US. We have some from the UK, but not many, and very few from anywhere else. So we should definitely support each other but also those authors as well!
Marie says
Oh thank you so much, Keira, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! <3
I agree – I have discovered some great UKYA authors lately and in the past few years (Alice Oseman is probably one of my favorite of all times, I also love Lauren James and Sara Barnard a lot), but it makes me sad to see that there aren't more, either. You're so right that we should support both international bloggers AND writers 😀 <3
Keira says
Oh I haven’t heard of those authors!
Marie says
Ohh you should check them out, they are all INCREDIBLE! <3
Keira says
Will do 🙂
Sue Featherstone says
Thank you for an interesting and thought-provoking post. I’m a UK-based writer and blogger and hadn’t appreciated how out on a limb international book bloggers must sometimes feel, so, Marie, if you’d like to host a book giveaway I’ll happily provide a copy of each of my two contemporary wonen’s fiction novels with my writing partner Susan Pape. A Falling Friend and A Forsaken Friend are books one and two in a trilogy, published by small indie Lakewater Press, which is based in Australia.
Marie says
Thank you so much for your sweet comment, I’m glad this blog post could be useful and make you more aware of everything 🙂 and thank you for asking, I’m about to go on holidays but I’ll think about it once I am back 🙂
sakhile writes says
As an international blogger, it’s a bit discouraging sometimes in the book blogging community when your content feels irrelevant because you’re not talking about the latest “it” which still isn’t available in the country I live in after weeks and I’m so glad you mentioned libraries because most people don’t seem to get that we don’t all have access to big libraries that stock the latest release. Love your post
Marie says
I get that feeling – and it is so frustrating when people constantly mention libraries without thinking that no one has the same access to books 🙁 I hope this post might make more people aware of international bookworms struggles 🙂
Thank you so much! <3
Kaleena @ Reader Voracious says
LOVE THIS!!!
Marie says
Ahhhh thank you!! I’m so happy you enjoyed it <3 <3 <3
stephanie says
i recently found out about scribd and noticed a lot of international readers using it! it’s a monthly subscription of about $9/month and you get unlimited access to books/audiobooks/ebooks/etc. i also noticed that they do have quite a number of collections 🙂
i’m just grateful that im based in the US and even if i decide not to live in the US in the future, i will always have a US based address.
i also didnt even know until recently that libraries arent worldwide lol i know 🙁
but anyways, great post!!
Marie says
Oh yes I’ve heard a lot about Scribd, I am not personally using it a the moment but I heard that it’s great! I’ll have to check it out, thank you so much for sharing!! 😀
Libraries aren’t worldwide and, depending on the region or country, they don’t have the same collection and wide YA-selection we would like, or they don’t exist at all. I wish libraries would be everywhere.
Thank you so much for your sweet comment, Stephanie! <3
Raven @ Dreamy Addictions says
Thank you so much for this post, Marie! As an international blogger, I totally agree with everything you’ve said. It was unfair how we’re restricted to ARC’s especially ebooks. All the good books in Netgalley are mostly in the” wish for it list” and we know they’re never going to be granted unless you have a huge number of followers. And coming to the library part, they don’t have a huge collection of fiction books let alone YA books.
Marie says
It is a bit frustrating, having to face all of these struggles and I hope that this post and the fact that international readers are important and making their place in the community, will maybe give a little push in the right direction to change things, or make some progress to make international readers feel included 🙂 <3
Thank you so, so much for your swet comment, Raven! <3
Louise ☆ says
People talking about libraries gives me such a headache sometimes even though I’m in the UK, there are times when I can’t afford to even go to the library because the most local one to me closed down so now I have to take a 10 minute bus journey to the nearest one, and there are times that I can’t even afford the bus fare. And then there’s the issue of borrowing ebooks from the library because my library’s ebook selection is horrifically lacking, plus the physical selection can be pretty poor because it’s so underfunded. The better library I can use is even further away and more expensive to get to so I can end up pretty stuck sometimes 🙁
Even though I do have a lot of luck and privilege when it comes to being a reader in the UK, I do still think that the bookish community is very North American-centric. The number of giveaways I used to see that were marked as “US/Canada only” used to make me feel a little left out at times.
Marie says
I feel you – I’m sorry to hear your library situation isn’t ideal 🙁 It’s always so annoying whenever people mention libraries, because some people might not have libraries at all, while others might have some, but they are not well-founded or are lacking the books we want, or just too far away for us to go there, too. 🙁
I understand your feeling there – it’s so frustrating to see giveaways marked like that, though I understand the shipping costs problems. I am happy to see more and more giveaways being INTL and I hope this will continue <3
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on the topic! <3 <3
Jared @dabook.club says
That must be so hard! Super blessed to be where I’m at! Also, #Bookwish ??? That’s a thing!!!! I’ve been wanting to gift random people books, but haven’t found a way to do it! I’m TOTALLY going to do that!!! Great post! You just got a subscriber!
Marie says
AHH this makes me so happy, I’m certain so many people will be happy to see their wishes granted thanks to you 😀
Thank you so much! <3 <3
Lydia Tewkesbury says
Yes to all of this. I am only very really on the periphery of the community, especially these days so this stuff doesn’t affect me so much any more, but I used to find the Twitter chats thing in particular incredibly frustrating. I love books, but not enough to sit up until 2am to talk about them!
I appreciate that it can be harder for some bloggers to make their competitions international when they have to eat shipping costs, but when people are in a position to do that it seems very unfair to exclude so many readers simply because they don’t live in the US.
Marie says
I agree with you – I completely understand the shipping costs struggles, it is SO expensive at times. But when people can afford it or when they can use other ways to make giveaways more inclusive, like book depository for instance, I and international bloggers appreciate it SO much <3
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts <3
Lindsi says
I’ve never understood why NetGalley doesn’t allow International Bloggers to request books. It doesn’t cost anything extra, right? What about buying ebooks on Amazon? Do they charge you extra for doing that even though it’s a digital copy? I’m not going to lie, I’m very unfamiliar with how things work for you guys, and it sounds like it’s terrible. We check out 50+ books from a library down the road every week, so it’s not something I’ve ever had to deal with. (Mostly children’s books and a few for me.)
Maybe things will get better in the future! Fingers crossed!
— Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear?
Marie says
I don’t understand that either, maybe it’s a rights question, I’m not sure :/
I am not buying e-books on Amazon since I don’t have a Kindle, but as far I know you are not paying extra, as long as you’re ordering on your amazon’s country website. That being said, most of the time when deals are shared online for e-books, well, they’re only available for the “.com” website and sometimes that doesn’t work out well for everyone.
It’s really amazing that you got a great library close-by that you can make good use of 🙂 Thank you for your support and for reading, that means a lot! <3
Lindsi says
Hmm, I didn’t realize the websites would be different even for the same company, but I guess that makes sense. Do our blogs register differently, too? I’m starting to realize just how clueless I am to International blogging. I didn’t know how hard it was for you guys to read and review the books you want. I really hope changes are made in the future that allow you to participate equally.
Marie says
Well the websites are different and, for instance, depending on the country you’re in, shipping costs are different too, for amazon for instance. Since I’m in France I get lucky enough to not have shipping costs (because of a French law about books and such), but Amazon for other countries have BIG shipping costs for books, sometimes as big as the price of the book itself, so that’s… well, bothering haha.
The general layout of the website is the same as well, they’re just some shipping rules that changes over on Amazon for instance 🙂
Thank you so, so much for your support – I appreciate it SO much when people are making some effort to include international bloggers and hope that this will continue 🙂 Thank you, that means a lot! <3
Ellyn says
Honestly, YES TO THIS WHOLE POST. I live in Australia where apparently the book gods hate us because everything is so expensive and arcs are rarely available from publishers!
Marie says
Ohh Australia! I dream of going there someday haha. I’m sorry to hear it’s so difficult here for you as well, that’s so bothering. I really wish everyone could have the same easy access to books 🙁
Thank you so much for your comment <3 <3
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction says
I try to make most of my giveaways international by using The Book Depository (unless I’m giving away a physical book I already own — for those, international shipping can just be too cost prohibitive). Since most bloggers pay blogging expenses out-of-pocket, it can be hard for them to include international bloggers in their giveaways. But supporting our international blogger friends is always a great idea!
Marie says
That’s so sweet of you, thank you for trying to make international bloggers feel more included by using book depository when you can! <3 I completely get it about the shipping costs, these can be quite, well, WAY too expensive, it's unbelievable sometimes.
Thank you so, so much for your sweet comment and support, Nicole, it means so much! <3
Zoie says
I feel like traveling this summer has made me so much more aware of how difficult accessing English books can be. When I was in Hong Kong, all the book stores I went to had an English section that was only three bookshelves wide. The thing is, the books in that section consisted of children’s books, middle-grade novels, YA, classics, and adult novels — so you can imagine all the books for sale were just the most popular, bestselling books. I was craving new YA releases SO SO much this summer, but getting a physical copy overseas was just so much more expensive and tedious that I settled for waiting until I got back home to the U.S. (And the same situation occurred in Japan as well.)
Posts like these open my mind so much and make me realize that I should never take my home for granted again. I literally have a library with the best selection of new and old books five minutes (!!!) from my house — when I compare that to how I had to drive nearly an hour down to downtown Hong Kong to a book convention to get a copy of The Language of Thorns, I definitely feel extremely grateful for where I live. ?
Marie says
Oh I’m glad that travelling made you a bit more aware of things like these – here, I’m lucky if I get one shelf of English books in a bookstore, let alone one shelf with the books I’d actually like to read haha. It’s frutrating, I love browsing in bookstores but I can’t really do that 🙁
It’s so, so amazing you have a library so close to you and that you can enjoy it, that’s so great 😀
Thank you so much for your sweet words and support, that means a lot <3
maybedanae says
YES! Thank you so much for sharing this. I feel like it is so important to be aware and to acknowledge that there is so much variety and differences among different countries. I try my best but I sometimes forget too. Thank you for the reminder.
Marie says
Oh you’re so welcome, thank you so much for your sweet comment, that means a lot! <3
Norrie says
When I still lived in Hungary, I did visit the library on occasion (we had 1 for adults and 1 for children in my town), but the selection was not so great. Like, i couldn’t get English books there. Most of the books were translated to Hungarian, and we had a few Serbian/ Croatian and German, because we have a small community of these nationals.
Buying English books from bookstore was also a pain, had to order them online and they were quite expensive.
As we are talking about 11 years ago, we didn’t have kindle back then. I don’t know how kindle works in countries where there’s no Amazon. I remember one of my friends from the UK got a kindle here for her sister who lived in another country and set up an account for her, so she was able to buy books that way, but i don’t know what the actual options are.
Marie says
Libraries are complicated, especially when we’re living in a foreign country where English isn’t the first language, it’s hard to get books in their original language there, in bookshops already and in libraries they are non-existent sometimes, haha.
Oh that’s fantastic that one of your friends was able to do that – I have to say, I don’t have a Kindle so I have no idea how that works out. I wish things were a bit less complicated for us international bookworms,but well… we’re doing our very best haha 🙂 <3
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! <3
Tizzy Brown says
I’m from the UK, so like you I have a few frustrations but I recognise I’m really privileged compared to bloggers in other countries. I find getting hold of ARCs nearly impossible. I do have a library close by, but it rarely has the newer YA titles. Books come out in hardback over here first and then we have to wait for a year or more to get the paperback!
I do find it difficult to participate in Twitter chats, they always seem to be on at 1 am my time. I’d join in lots more if they were a bit earlier. I really appreciate bloggers who host international giveaways and I think the bookish wish tag is a great idea. Thanks for writing this post, you’ve got some great ideas.
Marie says
Oh thank YOU for your sweet comment, it makes me so happy that you enjoyed this post <3 <3 I get your frustrations, it is hard to wait for paperbacks to release sometimes and to feel out of the loop for everything sometimes :/
Thank you! <3 <3
Tanaz Masaba says
Yes to everything you said here Marie. As an international book blogger living in a third world country, I can personally confirm that there are countries where online shopping isn’t allowed due to legal mumbo jumbo, libraries are nonexistent and 99% of bookstores don’t even sell the original copies of foreign titles (they reprint them illegally and then sell those lower quality reprints) because the original foreign titles are so expensive that only a very small percentage of readers would be able to afford them. This is a really great post Marie, I love how you are spreading awareness here.
Marie says
It really is so important for people to realize how complicated it can be to get books. For some people in the world, it’s really easy and it’s far too easy to forget that it’s not like that everywhere in the world. It’s so important to be aware of the accessibility to books and how it’s different and REALLY hard in some places, too 🙁
Thank you so, so much for your sweet comment, I am so happy you enjoyed this <3 <3 <3
Camilla @ Reader in the Attic says
As an intl blogger, I must say I’m not super bothered. Mostly because I’m a money situation that allows me to get the books I desire (obiviously I cannot get over board with my orders) and I can use both Amazon or Book Depository. I still manage to get a good numer of eArcs. But so many are on wish.
Still, no libraries here. I’ve a major laugh at people thinking that the books I read in English can be found in Italian libraries or even bookshop. Okay, some bookshop have some titles, but jut a few numbers and paperback cost as much as an hardback.
Okay, this is not exactly the best example, but I think it might show how things are quite filtred trhough a only and unique view.
I remember once that a reader in book Twitter community, one that is quite know and looked up, I think, saying something about why people where getting so interested in book boxes when they could just pre-order for getting the swag. It left a bit… what?
Now, I perfectly know that many people cannot afford a book box (since it isn’t cheap) but it left me think because many times the famouse pre-order with swag can be purchased with US based bookshop/publishers and: 1)maybe not everything can be shipped to intl folks 2) the shiping cost is giant.
Talking form my perpsective, as someone who cannot travel often and meet authors, getting a book box is actually more convinient. For special edition, bookplate, my only chance to get an author’s autograph, getting chats with author and actual swag. All things that if I purchased separetly, it would be like buying a box for two or three times. Maybe even more because for some little things, like a candle for example, I once was proposed a ship cost of 30 and over euros.
Marie says
That’s fantastic that you are able to get books – it always feels like such a privilege to be able to do so when so many people have more difficulties than us in that area.
Same here, it makes me laugh thinking people feel like we have all the books we want, while the situation is actually so very different here. I’m glad if this post can open some people’s minds a bit more about the reality when it comes to intl bloggers and readers and accessibility to books 🙂
YES that’s a great argument – so many pre-orders contests are made US-only and sometimes if we want a little more, book boxes are the way to go, but they are SO expensive. For me it’s never worth it because I am not a big fan of swag haha 🙂 But yes, the shipping costs are way, way too big sometimes, unfortunately 🙁
thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and for your sweet comment! <3 <3
Sophie Li says
Hello Marie <3
Great post 🙂 I agree that the YA book world is very America-focused. I am fortunate to be in Canada where it is fairly easy to access books through the bookstore or the library. I've heard a bit about the struggles of international bloggers but I gained more appreciation of it after reading this post. It is amazing how you and other international bloggers continue reading and blogging with such passion despite these obstacles. Thank you for sharing <3
Marie says
Oh thank you so, so much Sophie, your sweet words and support mean the world to me and to other international bloggers, I am sure <3 I'm really happy if I could open people's eyes and minds a bit more with this post 😀
Caro @ bookcheshirecat says
THIS POST, it speaks to my soul!! I 100% second everything you said Marie, because as a fellow international bookworm I feel this soo much. Especially the thing with Netgalley lately … it’s just frustrating how nearly everything is ‘wish for it’ and I hardly get approved for anything anymore 🙁 The different timezones can also be quite frustrating when it comes to literally anything. However, I’m glad that a lot of Readathons have sprints running several times a day so that everyone has the chance to participate 🙂 That’s because they also have hosts from different timezones!
Marie says
Oh this is so awesome, I did not know that about readathons! I don’t participate in them often – actually, not at all haha – so I hadn’t noticed. I am so happy to hear they do that in order to be more inclusive, that’s awesome 😀 At least some progress is happening, let’s hope this keeps on going this way 😀
Thank you so much! <3 <3
Caro @ bookcheshirecat says
I’m a huge Readathon person, so I have come across it a few times – it’s always great to have a host team from different timezones 🙂 That’s true, any progress is good! ♥
Marie says
That’s so cool – I learned something today haha that makes me happy 😀
Cee Arr @ Dora Reads says
Yes to the times! I’m dyscalculic, and have trouble processing times in day-to-day life. So even the simple act of linking to a time-zone converter when you mention times, or using IST/GMT, would help me a lot!
One thing I would def. add is that Americans often don’t understand that we have different release dates for books, films, TV shows, etc. – something that they don’t think is a spoiler because *everyone’s* seen it (*rolls eyes* – that’s kind of a snobby FOMO attitude to begin with,) *is* a spoiler to us, because it hasn’t even been effing released here yet! *sighs* Lol! 🙂
Marie says
I agree with you, it would be so useful and important to just help people make the conversion, it’s not always easy to convert all of the timezones, it would be way easier to have some help or a direct link for us to know right away if we can make it, or not, at that time 🙂
YES YES YES. That’s such a good point as well. I’m thinking of Love, Simon for instance, that movie released THREE MONTHS after it was released in the US, in my country, but by then I just knew the entire movie already. It is so frustrating :/
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! <3 <3
lindseyhabets says
Such an awesome post Marie! Definitely agree that us international book bloggers have it tough since this is such an American-centric niche. Netgalley is especially disheartening, or give-aways that are US-only, and I’ve been dissapointed about missing a Twitter chat so much as well! But yeah, we should definitely all do our part to boost international bloggers. I’m thinking about including a little spotlight in my monthly wrap-ups, where I share the love and boost a particular blogger, focusing mostly on international bloggers. Every little bit helps!
Marie says
Oh that is such a brilliant idea if you do that, spotlights always warm my heart and are so appreciated in the community, too <3
It's so complicated sometimes to have access to books or just, to feel like we are not left out of this. We're doing our very best, but it's frustrating when doors close on us anyway 🙁
Thank you so, so much for your sweet words and your support, it means a lot! <3 <3
Grace Louise says
Aw I love this post so much Hun and you make such amazinggggggg points! Gorgeous post 🙂
Grace Louise || http://www.gracelouiseofficial.blogspot.co.uk/
Marie says
Oh thank you so much, I’m so happy you enjoyed it!! 😀
Ilsen Leon says
I knew about all the struggles but I can’t imagine not having a library or a bookstore! How can you read? You guys are magical! Well I love hearing about your blogs and I love to support!
Marie says
Aww thank you so, so much for your sweet words and support, that means a lot! <3
kat says
Hi Marie,
I just agree with everything you just said. Being an international book blogger often isn’t that easy and I guess we people from more privileged countries are lucky to live here and have online shops actually shipping here. It’s even worse for people who don’t have access to Book Depository or something similar. And the thing is, a lot of us, no matter where we come from, read English books and for the mentioned reasons it’s difficult to get those books. And those who don’t read in English are dependent on publishers from their country to publish and translate it (which can take years and years and then the translation is probably bad). The next problem is talking to publishers and trying to work with them. I’m usually decliend or people don’t even bother answering me but what am I supposed to do? It’s not my fault I’m not American or from the UK.
And the giveaway thing you mentioned? Completely agree. Because most of the time I go “Wooo a giveaway” just to go “oh, US/UK only. ok bye”. And I understand that for people like us but tbh, I think publishers have enough money to make one or two giveaways international?
I don’t know, it’s just not that easy for everyone as some people think it is.
Really great post!
Kat
Marie says
I’m so happy you enjoyed this post, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about it, Kat! <3
Translations take so much time and sometimes they just never happen, which is frustrating. I'm so thankful to have access to book depository and I'm so sad and frustrated for people who can't even get their books from there. I wish things were easier 🙁
Thank you so much! <3 <3
JJ @ This Dark Material says
I love how comprehensive this is Marie! As a US-based reader, I’ve learned so much about the access others around the world have to books since I started blogging. I was surprised more than once about library availability or the price of new books, especially in countries that I had always assumed would have been similar to the US. This is such a great resource for others like me who maybe haven’t even needed to consider how publishing, libraries, and book selling work outside their home country until recently. Thank you so much for sharing!
Marie says
Oh thank you so, so much for your sweet comment, I’m so happy you enjoyed this post! ❤️
I’m really happy if this can help you and other people on the blogosphere understand international bloggers and readers’ struggles a bit more. They’re worth mentioning and so important, I’m hoping that people can try to be a bit more open-minded and understanding with our issues ❤️
Thank you so, SO much for your sweet comment! ❤️❤️
Clo @ Book Dragons says
Like you I’m in International but I have privileges more than you I think, as I’m in the UK but nonetheless I’m still international. Something that sometimes grates on me is when others lump the US and UK together assuming the UK gets the same sort of privileges as the US. Like, we don’t. Whilst we do get more authors visiting us than in other countries, usually they do book events in London, sometimes they’ll also do one in the other capital cities so Cardiff and Edinburgh. Where I live, we’re usually forgotten about. It’s why me and my bookish best friend always jump at the chance of book events, because they rarely happen where we are. We don’t have the money to travel down to London.
For instance SJM is coming to the UK for Kingdom of Ash tour…she’s going to London and Edinburgh. Which is GREAT and I’m grateful she’s coming at all, but like I can’t go.
Aside from that, I just wish I could give all the INT folk the libraries and books, it’s beyond frustrating when other ppl don’t get that not all of us have libraries :/ Loved this post Marie! <3
Marie says
Oh, the UK. I was in the UK just last week and I could have spent all of my holidays in Waterstones” ? Sorry, out of topic, but that had to be said ?
You’re making such a great point here – thank you SO much for mentioning this. I feel like it can be that way a little bit in each country, I know that tons of things are happening in New York for the US and I knew a little bit about most events being held in London, too. England is such a big country though and so many people can’t travel all the way there, that’s too bad :/ I really wish that authors able to visit internationally would consider more cities, or maybe just something, right in the middle from Edinburgh and London or something, to allow more bookworms to come. I guess it’s the publisher and every organization instance that decides this, but it’s really sad that this often happens :/
AGREE. I am tired of people saying “go to a library” when it’s just not an option for so, so, so many people in the world 🙁
Thank you so, SO much for sharing your insight and thoughts on the topic, that means a lot! ❤️❤️
Clo @ Book Dragons says
Waterstones is amazing! <3 Thank you SO much for writing such a great discussion post!
Marie says
It really is ahah I would spend all day there if I could 😀
You’re so sweet thank you! <3
yanal12 says
hi marie
first I just want to say that I enjoyed reading your post 🙂
I’m a arab girl living in Israel and even though we do have book shops here, most of them offer books only in hebrow or english but no in arabic, the costs of books is high considering jews are the people of the book. I do read books in hebrow (great books!) and english and also in arabic ( you buy books from a book fair that happens in arab towns once a year) and I started learning sapnish this year and I’ve been wanting to read in spanish but unfortunately that’s not an option
Marie says
Oh thank you SO much, I’m so happy you enjoyed it 🙂 Access to books is so different depending on where you live in the world and prices are so different just as well, I wish it weren’t so complicated for us international readers 🙁
lostartofreadingblog says
This is a great post, thank you for sharing.
Marie says
Thank YOU so much for reading, I’m so happy you enjoyed it 😀
Amanda @Cover2CoverMom says
Thank you so much for sharing Marie! Before I started book blogging, I never know the struggles that international bookworms faced. Since I live in the U.S., I’ve taken my access to books for granted. I didn’t know that libraries are not a thing in every country. I also never thought about access to AFFORDABLE books either.
I think it is fantastic that you are trying to spread awareness and support your fellow international book bloggers. I will be more conscious of promoting international book bloggers now!
Marie says
OH thank you so, so much for your sweet comment, Amanda! <3 I'm really happy if I can spread a little love and awareness to everyone about international book bloggers <3 <3
Dani @ Perspective of a Writer says
Unfortunately, copyright laws dictates what ARC services and publishers can release to the public. Indie authors have more freedom and many times will give you an eARC at the very least. I realized during my first giveaway that Book Depository is the best method. If I did another I’d use them for sure. Love this post Marie! ♥️
Marie says
Ohh okay – I thought it was something like that preventing INTL bloggers from getting some ARCs, but wasn’t so sure. It’s so strange that everything changed on NetGalley from one day to another though. Anyway that’s a whole other question I guess 🙂
Thank you so, so much and thank you for your support, that means a lot! <3
Sophie @ Blame Chocolate says
This was a wonderfully written and very thorough post, Marie! So well done, and so helpful.
It’s true that the US gets practically everything handed on a silver platter but we must persist! The UK is a bit more privileged than most, but even we struggle a bit in comparison. I think your drive and concern for all international bloggers is commendable – each of us are grateful for your amazing work and for giving everyone a voice, especially those who cannot have one of their own.
I agree with everything you’ve mentioned, of course, and will now go and check all the linked posts. Thanks so much for sharing! <3
Marie says
Oh thank you so, so much Sophie – I am so happy you enjoyed this post <3 <3
I really hope that this might inspire some people to try and do more, within their means of course, and that it will encourage more international bloggers to speak out as well. It's so important to be heard <3
Thank you so, so much for your support, Sophie!! <3 <3
Sophie @ Blame Chocolate says
Of course, any time! ? Couldn’t praise your efforts enough – all our voices together will make a difference, I just know it ❤️❤️
Keep up the wonderful work you’re doing!
Marie says
Awww thank you so, so much Sophie, doing my very best <3 <3
Kat @ Novels & Waffles says
This was a beautifully written and well-articulated post! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us, Marie! I feel like I have a foot in both worlds in regarding the bookish community – I’m an American but I live in Japan. Am I an international blogger? I dunno! I still have my American library card, so I can check out ebooks from my library back in the States (which is a huge blessing that I recognize International book bloggers can’t benefit from). But, at the same time, I empathize with you about bookstores. I can’t go waltzing into a bookshop and come out with loads of YA books (or any books in English, for that matter). The timezone thing is a huge deal here, since there is a 13 hour time zone difference, and international giveaways are so much less a thing than US-Only ones are.
In any case, thanks again for this wonderful post!
Marie says
Oh thank you so much for your sweet comment, I am so happy you enjoyed this post <3
I feel like you're a bit in-between, but that's also a great thing, I mean, you fully understand that way the privileges you can have, such as a great library card, and the difficulties us international book bloggers can have as well, with how hard it is to just find a bookshop to hang out at and get your books from 🙂
Thank you so, so much for your sweet words and for taking the time to read my post! <3 <3
Kristina says
Awesome post as always, Marie !
It always make me so puzzled onto if I count in international or not, giving the fact I do live on the north american’s ground – though some specifies US only and some do includes us canadian aswell with them. So it’s really confusing! Ahah – I do am in the lucky ones no doubt though. My french books are pricier as per translation cost, but i have access to free library, a bookshop and work part time. But additionnaly, US dollar is double of our Can dollar – so the price we need to pay them with the conversion is higher :/
You’re fighting the good fight! Hopefully some more people can acknowledge and give more love to int. Bloggers.
Marie says
Oh thank you so, so much, I’m really happy you enjoyed this post <3
Oh I get that – the price gets highter too here for books whenever I am lucky enough to find the english books I want in a rare bookshop haha. It is frustrating, so I order mostly online :/
Thank you so, so much for your sweet words and support! <3
Angelica @ Paperback Princess says
Marie thanks for this amazing post! I’ll be sharing it on my Weekly Wrap-up.
I’m an Aussie blogger and luckily we get ARCS, most of us have access to decent libraries and Book Depository so in that regard I’ve been blessed…but I still can RELATE! Most especially Netgalley…really??? We’ve got the internet that’s GLOBAL and yet most often than not we can’t request.
Will be checking all the posts that you’ve linked to.
Thanks once again for highlighting this topic.
Marie says
Oh you’re so, so welcome, thank YOU so much for your sweet comment, I’m so happy you enjoyed this <3 <3
It's a bit complicated to be an international book bloggers, but if we keep on going, that's because we are passionate and that's what matters 😀
Thank you so much! <3
irena_bookdustmagic says
As an international blogger, I have to admit that it is sometimes frustrating when I see just how much more opportunity I’d have, if only I lived in the US. Not only ARCs wise (but it is frustrating to see some new bloggers immediately getting ARCs I can only dream about getting, ,and I don’t want to sound angry or jealous, I want to stress out that I feel left out), but also all the book community events and book festivals are there too.
I feel like we international bloggers have to put three and more time effort in our blogging and book reviews to even be considered for an ARC, especially a physical one.
And then all the US only giveaways, it’s also frustrating. In my blogging lifetime I hosted many giveaways and every one of them was international, bc I know how hard for.international bloggers and blog followers it can be.
Hoowever, I have to mention that I have been granted with some book wishes on Netgalley, and I am thankful for that.
Also, there are some book publishers in UK that want to send physical ARCs in Croatia (that’s where I come from) but it’s mostly for adult titles. YA titles are harder to get.
The best experience when it comes to publishers I had with Penguin Random House. They are the only US based publisher that sent me some physical books and also they have put me on their pre-approved list for eARCs on Netgalley.
Marie says
I completely understand your frustration. It’s so… well, frustrating, for a lack of a better word right now ? to see how many opportunities are given so easily to US bloggers, while us international bloggers struggle and work twice, three times as hard to get to the same place. I guess that ultimately, the market for YA books is way bigger out there in the US, but still. I wish that sometimes, there would be ways for us to feel a little less left out.
Like hosting international giveaways for instance. Shipping fees are atrocious, it is true, but using book depository already is a bit more inclusive towards most people and that’s something to consider for sure a bit more.
It’s amazing that you got some wishes granted – that makes me feel better and makes me feel like it’s actually possible ? ?
Penguin Random House are wonderful with international book bloggers, from my experience just as well – they are giving me hope that we are not completely shut out from this ?
Thank you so, so much for your sweet comment and for sharing your experience <3 <3
Ruthsic says
oh my god…everything in this post, but particularly the library comment! We don’t even have many libraries where you would find English fiction books, forget YA lit which is a smaller market – and I speak for two different Asian countries in this particular regard. Being a book blogger is already expensive enough when you have to buy nearly all the books you read, and aren’t able to get library access for some books, and makes the availability and means to read even more difficult.
Additionally, and I know this isn’t strictly about other bloggers, but I wish American bloggers would also acknowledge that we don’t get as many incentives like exclusive editions with bonus content (this one always makes me sad because often there is no legit way to get those extras), or signed books, or even preorder campaigns goodies. I wish some, if they are able to, would host giveaways for that instead, or even just offer to buy those for INTL bloggers who are ready to pay for shipping.
Marie says
I am so happy you could find a bit of yourself in this post! This library thing is so very frustrating – I’m lucky enough to have a regular income since I’m working so I can get books, even if I can’t all the time either, but I can’t imagine how complicated it is when you’re not :/
Oh that’s such a great point!! I didn’t think of that when I wrote that post but you’re so right – exclusive editions and bonus content and everything seems amazing and I wish we could have an opportunity to get them, too!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! <3
The Unseen Librarian says
Living out in SE Asia comes with so many benefits. Convenience for book blogging is NOT one of them. This post speaks to me on so many levels and it really is a fantastic read. I wasn’t even aware that there were twitter chats because I’m never online at 6am. Thanks for this great post
Marie says
Oh thank you so much for your sweet comment, I’m so glad you enjoyed this post! 🙂 <3
Marta says
yes, yes, yes, couldn’t agree more! what a lovely post, Marie!! (might have inspired something for me to write too, but it’s just an idea so far haha) People constantly mention libraries, and while I’m lucky enough to have some near me, their collection of books I’m interested in is seriously lacking (for example, my local library doesn’t even have most series completed because it relies heavily on donations). And because I’m a student, I really have no income of my own. The last book I bought was for a class, and I can’t even remember the last book I bought to read for fun )):
Marie says
Ahh thank you so much Marta, you’re too sweet! <3 And it makes me so happy this could inspire you, too, please feel free to link back / send me the post or something so I don't miss it, if you end up writing it, I definitely want to read your thoughts! 🙂
It is SO frustrating when people mention libraries, assuming we all have the same access to them :/ Being an international book blogger is so frustrating at times 🙁
Thank you so much for your sweet comment, Marta <3 <3
Jules_Writes says
Really interesting and thoughtful post.
Marie says
Thank you so much, so happy you enjoyed it! 🙂
Carol says
Thanks for writing on this topic! I learned and I accept the challenge to support international bloggers!
Marie says
YAY! thank you so much for reading and for your support , it means a lot! <3
Carol says
You’re very welcome ?
Inge | The Belgian Reviewer says
It drives me crazy that people always suggest to go to the library. They have almost no books in English, they don’t invest in series… same in the local bookstore, they only have a few of the hyped novels. I wouldn’t be surprised they still promote The Girl in the Train here. I love it when others organise international giveaways, it really makes me feel included then and appreciated as an international blogger. My only wish is that publishers would do so too. I’m sure they can afford one international giveaway and it’s so often limited to the UK/IRE or US. Thanks for this fab post!
Marie says
That library comment always makes me SO mad. I appreciate it that people support libraries, it’s so important, but it’s also SO important to recognize that not everyone in the world has the same access to libraries :/
Agree! International giveaways are so, so nice and I always appreciate them so much when people can do them <3
Thank you so, so much for your comment! <3
oroplatamyta says
I agree with everything in this article. I just started book blogging last October and, while I know this is an incredibly large investment, I know it’s all worth it. However I do have some disappoints with my national government for not allocating larger budgets to libraries so that they can order newer books and update their infrastructure, as well as build satellite libraries across the country. Still though, I’m very grateful for the international book blogging community with their generous giveaways and all-around support. It’s been a positive ride so far, and discovering so many books from around the world is just fantastic.
Marie says
I’m so happy you’ve been having a positive experience with blogging, despite the international struggles! The community overall is just so welcoming and I appreciate it so much when people can be inclusive to international bloggers as well <3
Thank you so, so much for your sweet comment! <3
millesreves says
I’m really new in this community, I’ve just started my bookish blog back in January 2019 but as I (slowly) grow, I try to get the attention of publishing houses. Because duh, it’s really interesting to read books in advance and be one of the firsts to talk about it, and help people discover those books, and all and all. But as a French book blogger, this is so discouraging. I’ve joined Netgally, and I had the extremely good luck to get books I’m interested in – but neither were “wishes”, I could directly ask for it. I tried Edelweiss. I asked for at least 20 books. All of those demands came back denied. This is so discouraging seeing mails, and mails, and mails, saying that no, you can’t have this. Specially because you don’t have the reason for all these refused demands. Mostly, it is because I live in France. I’m not interesting. I’d like to shout to every american publishing houses : give a chance to international book bloggers! It’s not because we’re not from America that we don’t like/read what you published!! And a lot of our viewers/followers also like those kind of books. You’re losing sales by doing so, mate. What a shame!
Marie says
Well, first of all, a late welcome to book blogging and AHH hello I’m French too 🙂 It’s so great to meet fellow French bloggers 🙂
I so get the frustration, most of the books are on “wish for it” on NetGalley for me, too, and Edelweiss hasn’t been my lucky place so far either haha. It can be so, so very frustrating and I feel like publishers could reconsider some of their publicity strategies when it comes to that for sure. <3 I'm here if you need anything, really, always happy to help if I can! Keep on blogging and enjoying it, wishes are rare to be granted on NetGalley, but I'm living proof that bookish dreams can happen, some did for me 🙂
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! <3
millesreves says
You’re really nice, thanks you!! ❤
Marie says
my pleasure!! <3
irena_bookdustmagic says
This!! I couldn’t agree more with everything you say. I am also international blogger and every little support means so much to me.
I will go through posts of other bloggers you mentioned now.
Thanks for talk
irena_bookdustmagic says
I wanted to finish it with thanks for talking about this, but bus driver made me push that post comment button.
Marie says
Hahaha, thank YOU for your comment, us international bloggers stick with each other <3 Thank you!! <3
Marie says
Thank you so much for your sweet comment and for your support! <3 <3
Trisha : Tale of a Bookworm says
Oh dear! *hugs* this bookish community is lovely.. but I totally feel the frustration being an international book blogger myself. You know.. even this happened, agent knocks me to know if I am interested, I say yes. She asks for my address and upon seeing I am from Malaysia apologised and said it would be too costly ? also lets not talk about the lack of libraries!
Thank you for the post ?
Marie says
Oh no! I’m so sorry this happened to you, it’s so frustrating to let you hope like that ugh, I hate that it happened 🙁
At least we all have each other, the support of the community and its generosity is amazing <3
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! <3
Trisha : Tale of a Bookworm says
Thank you so much for your kind words ?
Marie says
Of course!! <3 <3
Kate (Reading Through Infinity) says
This is an amazing post Marie! Everything you’ve said is to important and relevant to the book community, and I hope lots of people read this post and take a minute to think about what it’s like for international bloggers. I definitely feel lucky to have access to libraries and publisher ARCs in the UK, but this post reminded me to check my privilege and to try and do more for INTL bloggers. I’ll definitely be doing another INTL giveaway soon 🙂
Marie says
Ahhh Kate thank you, you’re too sweet ? I’m so happy you enjoyed this post and thank you for being so thoughtful and generous, it means so much <3
Meredith Ritter says
??? great post!
Marie says
Thank you so much!! 🙂
Sifa Elizabeth says
As an international blogger, I know how lucky I am to live in the UK. We have a market, and decent shops/libraries. However, so many books never make it across the pond to us from America, and the same (e)ARC issue occurs here. I’m so glad you’re talking frankly and openly about the issues many of us face, when it feels like you can be so alone in the situation
Marie says
Thank you so, so much for sharing your thoughts on the topic!! <3 Us intl bloggers have to support each other 🙂
Read&Create says
I am an international book blogger and all I can say is WOW and THANKS!
Marie says
Oh you’re welcome, thank you for your comment!! <3
RoseMarie says
Wow! Such a passionate post, Marie. I’m sorry you have to go through all of this as an International Book Blogger. It made me checked my privilege here in Canada immediately. I take to heart this post and will try to support International book bloggers however, I can.
Marie says
Thank you so, so much for your words and support, it means so much! <3
devouringbooks2017 says
As far as Edelweiss, you should really read Kaleena @ Reader Voracious’ post about how requesting books from Edelweiss. I used to hate Edelweiss, but her tips really helped me and now I get many more books from there. Here is the post: https://readervoracious.com/2018/05/22/edelweiss-101-tips-tricks/
I highly recommend giving it a read. She also has a program to help international bloggers get #ownvoices ARCs.
Marie says
Thank you so much for sharing this, I am aware of Kaleena’s amazing program to share ARCs around the world and have already read her Edelweiss blog post, unfortunately not much luck so far ahah 🙂
Thank you though!! 🙂
devouringbooks2017 says
I have had a lot more success after using her tips. I had no idea that it mattered what you wrote in the boxes!
Marie says
I’m glad to hear it worked out well for you so far 🙂 No matter what I do I haven’t had much luck yet, who knows it might change someday 🙂
devouringbooks2017 says
I think the trick is really in what you write in the box, plus making sure your profile is up to snuff.
Marie says
I’m doing it all as advised by everyone, it’s all a matter of chance sometimes, too. 🙂 thank you though!
devouringbooks2017 says
I kind of agree. I don’t know though, the difference in what I used to get compared to what I get now is quite drastic.
Marie says
I’m glad it worked out well for you so far 🙂
devouringbooks2017 says
I re-request sometimes if I get denied. But for the most part I get the books I want
dinipandareads says
I feel so seen by everything you’ve written here! I’ve only just started blogging, tweeting and basically trying to be more active in the book community, but the struggle is definitely already very real. I often question just what I’m trying to do every time I try to get/do something and end up rejected. I’m based in Indonesia, and I think in terms of all book markets and especially for English books, it’s a pretty obscure location that people don’t think twice about saying no to. We don’t have libraries, and books that we get here come out MUCH later than a lot of other places. ARCs are pretty much impossible to get and what you said about e-ARCs is pretty much it.This post is amazing. Thank you for writing this!
Marie says
Oh thank you so much for your sweet comment, I’m so happy you could relate to this and know that you’re not alone struggling with these things. <3 Thankfully the intl book blogging community is amazing and so, so supportive. This always warms my heart to think about that <3
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! <3 <3
dinipandareads says
So far, my experience in the blogging community has been great. Everyone has been super nice! I look forward to meeting more bloggers over time (especially international ones)! 🙂
Marie says
This makes me so happy to hear <3 the community is so friendly, that's why I love it so much 😀
Mina @Stacked says
Finally, someone is talking about this! I’m a book blogger from Serbia, and I experience these issues all the time.
We do have lots of libraries and bookshops, but the books you can find there are usually older and you can’t find any of the currently popular books. Most books that I see other bloggers talk about will probably never be translated.
Those that are published here, get published usually at least 5 or 6 years later (and only if they’re by well-known writers) or when a movie based on them comes out.
As for the giveaways, just like you said, it’s very limited. You at least live in France, it’s almost impossible to get a hard copy if you live in Europe, but in a non-EU country. The same goes for Amazon – their shipping fees for Serbia are enormous. If the book costs $8, the total fee will rarely be less than $40, and you have to wait like 2 months to receive it.
Thanks for this post 🙂
Marie says
Thank you so much for your sweet comment and for taking the time to share your experience! <3
It's so frustrating sometimes and wow, the shipping fees for Amazon are gigantic, this is… wow. I'm so sorry you're experiencing this. The intl community has been so thoughtful and generous and I can only hope this goes on. We all got your back <3 <3
utopiastateofmind says
I feel this so much! I have the weird position where I’ve bounced between the US and Europe, so I have definitely more privileges than others in the intl spheres, but some of the dialogue I’ve witnessed is just so awful. So thank you for this post, I hope it helps people get a clue into what it is to be an intl blogger s- which is how I started and am now again
Marie says
Thank you, Lili, for being so amazingly supportive, this honestly means the world <3 <3 <3
Keeana @ Reading in the Clouds says
Loved this post! As a Jamaican based book blogger, it’s hard. Our libraries are more catered to the educational aspect of reading. And even if it’s or enjoyment, it’s usually books like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. We have book stores as well but it’s the same thing with libraries -educational- and the books that are just for reading are usually adult romances (the erotic ones) or mostly Nora Roberts, self-help books and such.
We recently got a book store that caters to reading for fun but their YA selection is usually so small. Like you’ll go in there and see a book for a series and buy it, only to realise it’s the last or second book and they don’t usually have the first.
Most of the hard copies of books I own, I’ve got through giveaways. I consider myself pretty lucky when it comes to book giveaways but most of the time the books I want are usual for the US/UK and I can’t enter. It baffles me sometimes when I see a giveaway and the book is being bought through Amazon and there’s a follow-up tweet that says “sorry intl readers” I mean if you can buy it from amazon you can buy it from BD, right? I think books from Wordery are actually expensive compared to everywhere else.
Also buying books online is really expensive because hello, exchange currency? A new hardback would cost $25 and that would be $3,350 in Jamaican dollars. So being an international reader is pretty hard.
Marie says
Oh thank you so much, I’m so happy you enjoyed this post and thank you for sharing your experience as well <3
I agree with you about giveaways, it is a little frustrating at times. I understand the shipping costs when a person is sending a book themselves, but sometimes for other kinds of giveaways, book depository, which ships to a lot of countries, would already be a great alternative. I wish we could all be rich to send books all around the world, but unfortunately that's not how it is hahaha.
I get that so much, new hardbacks can get pretty expensive, usually I wait for the paperback or just… watch regularly to see if the price drops haha 🙂
Thank you so much for shaing your experience <3
Pam Who Cried Books says
Again, thank you, Marie, for putting this up. Even though I’ve only been extra active in the book blogging community, these struggles experienced by INTL book bloggers have been present for quite a while now.
It IS discouraging at times because here we are, just trying to channel our passion for books by helping authors and publishers shine even more light on their books, but a lot of times, we just don’t have access to ARCs (not even e-arcs! E-ARCS!! Which doesn’t need to be shipped!!! How hard could it be to give out e-arcs??)
I’m from the Philippines and even though we DO have libraries, they’re mostly not funded adequately by the government to have an even wider array of selections (even if there’s a library in the area, it mostly contains academic books and paraphernalia). How sad is it that I’m already 25 years old but I’ve NEVER been in a library here in PH.
We have bookstores too! I’m privileged enough to be working in one of the major cities and have access to book stores. But how about those living in farther provinces? 🙁 How about student bloggers who are under a tight budget? How about working bloggers who have to prioritize other expenses over buying physical copies of books?
I wish the non-INTL community would be louder about this. So MORE publishers will maybe realize that “oh shucks INTL book bloggers are actually important!)
I’ve so many thoughts about this and I want to say more, but for now, this would do. Haha.
Marie says
Pam, thank you SO much for your sweet words, I am honestly so happy that this post resonated with you and your support means the world <3
Thank you for sharing your experience with it all! I agree that at times it can be a little discouraging, especially when it comes to e-ARCs… there has to be some rules we don't understand, but… that's it, I'd love to understand instead of just feeling, shut out, somehow.
I'm 200% with you here, I wish non-INTL people would be more vocal about our issues and that publishers would give more shots to us, as well, because we matter and can make a difference, too, I really believe that <3
Thank you so much for your sweet comment, Pam!! <3 <3
Pam Who Cried Books says
Love that we’re on the same page here with a lot of INTL bloggers. This whole thing can feel like we’re being shut out at times, but at the end of the day, our passion for reading is still there and all we can do is shout louder. <3
Marie says
Exactly <3 <3
Hana Bilqisthi says
Thank you for writing this ???
Marie says
Thank you so much for reading!! <3
Solace In Reading says
i really did not start thinking abt this until Fadwa’s post about a week ago, and now that i’ve read this one, i realize that i need to be more aware and keep promoting international book bloggers. as someone in the u.s., i do have a lot of privilege, and hopefully i can get $ to do inclusive giveaways.
Marie says
Thank you! I’m glad that our posts about it could help put things into perspective for you, thank you so much! 🙂