Americans Can Buy Paper Books, For Now

Threat of tariffs still looms large

3rd February: UPDATE

The Prime Minister and the President have negotiated a 30-day delay on the tariffs, so I am reopening sales of paper books to the United States until the beginning of March.

For more details, see this article in the Financial Post.

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I have temporarily suspended sales of all paper books to the United States. It’s not that I dislike my American cousins, but rather that I wish to avoid unpleasant surprises and negative reviews.

The shop remains open to the rest of the world.

Yesterday afternoon, President Trump introduced a 25% tariff on goods coming from Canada. I am giving US customers a few months to grow accustomed to paying more for Canadian items rather than deal with the inevitable onslaught of angry emails and posts:

“I don’t know why I had to pay an extra $5 for this book! The seller should have paid the tariff for me!” — one star review signed by stinkbottom73

Fortunately digital goods appear to be exempt from these tariffs, at least for now, so American readers can still buy and download PDF copies of all my translations from ebooks.oboluspress.com

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Typically more than half of my paperback sales are made to the United States, so I don’t know what kind of long-term effect these measures will have. It’s not good though, that’s for damned sure.

At the moment I am thinking about focussing on small format, limited editions that can be shipped overseas at a reasonable price. There is, after all, a Commonwealth full of potential readers. What’s old is new again.¹

Map from a brochure encouraging immigration to Canada, early 1920s.

1. I say this tongue in cheek, but still…