Hi!
I was thinking about how I should start this post, with a regular adequate text, or with a gif. Heavily inspired by Cait@Paper Fury’s 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Australian Book Bloggers, so I think we can start this way:
This is how I feel everytime I think of the meaning of this post
So hi! I’m an international book blogger.
And it all could’ve still been nice, if only I was from any other developed countries, e.g. Europe. But nope, that miracle ain’t happening.
Alert: It’s GIF HEAVY!
I live in a little country called Vietnam, in South-East Asia, and nobody that sells cool merchandise happen to know where the hell that is.
So what else is so not cool about me being an international book blogger from a tiny country? And what is the damn purpose of this probably useless blog post?
1. Newest English book releases
Struggle almost number one. Whenever the new book comes out internationally, it has two futher options: to be imported for sale in Vietnam, or not to be.
Usually all bookstores prefer the latter option.
You make me drool over all those cool books I see in other bookstagrams, but I can’t have them because what? YOU DON’T IMPORT HERE? SCREW YOU!
Well, of course, I can buy myself! What else all my credit cards are made for? But then you can label me as “Forever latergrammer”, because books may come very late.
2. Book prices
WARNING: Before you judge about what I’ve written, please do a little research on average Vietnamese prices.
Long story really, REALLY short:
A cool book: Look at me, I’m only $12.76!
Me: ONLY??? HOW THE HELL IS THAT CONSIDERED ONLY?? I CAN GET A GOOD STEAK FOR THAT PRICE HERE!
Also me: Okay, I’ll take you. And I’ll still eat the steak!
or:
8 books on a Russian website: Hey, together we cost $39.89
Me: That’s an awesome deal!
Books: And shipping to your tiny country is $60 more!
Me:
I can freaking buy 6 to 7 MORE books with that shipping price! Why the heck you only ship with DHL??
Yes, I know that Russian post office overall sucks. BUT THAT’S NOT FREAKING FAIR!
I can’t go overseas everytime I wanna get some books! You better come up with better solution on delivering books internationally!
3. Bookish Merch? Nope, you ain’t getting it.
Because why?
Merch website: We ship internationally!
Me: That’s so bloody cool! Do you ship to Vietnam?
Merch website: Sorry, your country is a little piece of shit, we ain’t shipping there.
ME:
I’m really sorry for every single bookish merch store, I sincerelly love you all, but this is the reality I have to deal with! >__< I want to fill my bookstagram photos with your cool stuff, why you ain’t letting me???
4. Problems with local post offices
How often do you get robbed in the post office? We get it every other time. Sometimes I think the customs personnel are actually nifflers, and they take away not only the shiny stuff, but also things they find like THEY NEED TO KEEP IT SO I CAN CRY A FREAKING RIVER OVER THE LOSS
That is actually why Amazon doesn’t ship any bookish merchandise to me. ESPECIALLY FUNKO POPS! My local shop only sells those I’m not interesting in collecting, but my furrever wishlists are never getting noticed!
5. Any kind of book events, giveaways, tours?
HA.
HA.
HA.
KEEP DREAMING LOSER.
Yes, I understand that our official language is not English, but at least GIVEAWAYS, no?
That’s why I’m secretly preparing a plan to seize the world a bookish project for my city, so I can delulu in my little bookish world.
6. No hardcovers selling here
LIKE, PEOPLE, DON’T YOU WANT TO BUILD A SUPER PRETTY BOOKSHELF EVERYONE CAN BE ENVIOUS OF??? NO?
Cause I wanna build that! That’s why I’m thinking of starting a cool project mwahahahah.Simply, Vietnamese readers have zero understanding of true aesthetics /sigh/
7. YOU’RE LONELY HERE, LILIANA.
I have seen Viet-American bloggers here (shoutout to Summer (@xingsings) who was the first fellow Viet to respond to me), but I’m pretty sure that in this whole 90 million nation, I’m a the only freak with an English-languaged book blog that constantly reads and rant about books. Like, all youngsters around me prefer surfing media. I’M SO ALONE IN THIS WHOLE COUNTRY, HAAAALP
Okay, probably I cried too much while crafting this post, so I really hope you will understand how difficult it is to be the Luna Lovegood of Vietnam to be the lone ranger here.
If you’re an international book blogger, what are you most struggling with?
Trying not to cry a river again,
Liliana N Bookish Blog 
Oh man! I so feel for you 😀 I’m also an international blogger! All those problems! ALL OF THEM! 😀
But I also have a few solutions 🙂 I still only read English books. But I would be completely done for if I had to buy paper ones. Because not all Europe is fine! (At least people have heard of Vietnam. Most people have never heard of Lithuania :D)… and I also have the problem where book prices do not work for my country (steak for 12$? How about 19$?)
So yes. You ask me what I do? Algorithm:
1. Get Kindle.
2. Sign up to the US Amazon.
3. Register Kindle.
4. Sign up for ereaderiq.com
5. Get notified when books you have marked sell for 2$
6. PROFIT
So yes, I’m stuck to e-books, but so what? I get the newest books THIS. VERY. MINUTE. For super cheap!! Amazon sales babyyyyy ❤
Then there's also NetGalley and Edelweiss. You get review copies straight to your Kindle too! Okay, I'll always be pissed that publishers will mail paper books to even non-blogger reviewers in the US, but hey, we take what we can get, right? Also, goodreads giveaways DO yield some physical books (if you win) internationally too (but I wouldn't hold your breath too much)
So all of this makes the truth so that I now have around 500 unread e-books, among them, about 60 arcs… so.. yeah. Ain't that bad.
But still! I totally feel you! Also if you're interested I recently signed up to this awesome international program where they promised prizes even internationally, and even specifically because being international I get no book love! It's about YA. Wanna join?
Anyway. Us international bloggers should stick together 😀 you're not alone!!
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Hi! Thank you for this loooong comment!
I already have a Kindle, but I have a problem with my eyesight that doesn’t really allow me to read on ebook reader for long, so I still try to look for physical copies if possible 🙂 But thanks for the tip on ereaderiq.com!
I also have both NetGalley and Edelweiss, and I currently have around 5 ARCs to read lol
I entered as much as 20 giveaways on both twitter and GR, but never won one (I’m basically not lucky with it whatsoever lol)
Can I know a bit more about that international program? I might be really interested in!
Let’s unite our power!
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Oh, do you have like one of those screen kindles? Cause mine’s just.. no backlight. E-ink. So it just… Kind of feels like normal paper. Really too bad though if yours makes your eyes tired 😦 then it’s really sad!
Well, but I do have hopes. Let me dream. I have hopes that one day THEY WILL MAIL ME BOOKS 😀
Like I said. LET ME DREAM T_T haha
Really? I have actually won like… three or four actual GR giveaways! But haven’t won any since. And that was the year I said I’d win 1 thing for every month and ended up winning completely random things for 12 months PLUS THREE MORE. Which was… like pretty weird. I think it was a good case of NLP or just some plain old magic. I used to enter a lot of GR giveaways though xD
That international program, lemme find it. Here: https://twitter.com/broodingYAhero/status/857201160922550272
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Great post! I have nominated you for the Liebster Award. https://livelifereading.wordpress.com/2017/03/25/liebster-award/
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Awww, I hear the struggles!! And compared to my whinges about Aussie book blogger problems, you definitely have it worse. *sends virtual chocolate of consolation* I’m sooorry for you. 😭 The shipping annoys the heck out of me here too. The other day I saw a sale for the Six of Crows boxset and like, haha, after the shipping I wasn’t really saving anything. *heavy sigh*
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Oh Gosh, how did I even missed replying to your comment Cait???
I know right! That is so much struggle we have to endure in order to be happy about all those books and stuff we receive! Let’s not sink in that Cait! We have books to bring us even more happiness!
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