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Comment by DennisP | Hacker News Reader

I bought a Kobo for the same reason but when it came to buying books, none of the books I wanted to buy were on Kobo's store.

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If you want to be part of Kindle Unlimited you have to give worldwide exclusivity to Kindle Unlimited, and can't have ever published your eBook on another platform.

Even if I wanted to join, Kindle Unlimited is not offered here. I can't even buy the eBook from Amazon.

It's not just that. E.g. Cooper and Hutchinson's edition of Plato's complete works, available on Kindle for $31.[1] Or on another tack, Yudkowski's recent If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.[2] Neither book is on Unlimited, and I couldn't find either one on Kobo. I struck out half a dozen times in a row and finally gave up.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OZ4NMHU

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Builds-Everyone-Dies-Superhuma...

While it's true I don't see that version of Plato's complete works (in fact, I don't see any Hackett Publishing books), the book on AI[1] is available.

[1]: https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/if-anyone-builds-it-everyon...

Oh weird, I'd just searched for it. I tried again with the US site and it came right up. Maybe their search isn't as good with typos or something.

My daughter wanted a book that was kindle exclusive in the US, and I found I could purchase an epub from another store by paying in euros and claiming to live in Europe. Needless to say I did this without a VPN and without leaving San Francisco. The book was still in English.

But I wonder if the reason for that little hoop was because of Kindle Unlimited.

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