Can You Gift A Kindle Book To Someone Internationally?

Sharing Kindle books with people internationally is so easy to do and really makes for a wonderful way to share your love of stories with other people around the world. I have done this on several occasions. The way that you can give a Kindle book as a gift is to search for the book you wish to give and click on ‘Buy this book’ and then click on ‘Give as a Gift’ instead of ‘Buy this book’. This allows you to enter the recipient’s email address and they will instantly receive the book in their inbox wherever in the world they are. Just one thing to note though. Unfortunately not all Kindle books are available to purchase in every country due to licensing agreements with publishers and therefore would not be available to purchase from the recipient’s local Amazon store even if you purchased it from the US store. For example, I have a friend in Australia and even though I could purchase the book from my account in the US and send it to her via her Amazon account in Australia, the book is not available for purchase by her from her local Amazon store in Australia due to the publisher not having a licensing agreement to allow its sale in that country.

It’s also worth noting that recipients must have an Amazon account set up in the correct country. So if the recipient is traveling abroad, or has recently moved to a new country, their Amazon account will need to be set up to that country. I once tried to send a gift to a friend in Canada, but it got stuck because her Amazon account was set up in her name in the UK. Although it was a bit of a hassle, Amazon customer services were very helpful in sorting out the problem in the end. Giving Kindle books as gifts is an easy and convenient way to connect with book lovers from all over the world, and it generally works a treat, particularly with more popular titles that are available in most countries.

It’s also really easy to send Kindle books to friends living abroad. I just need their email address associated with their Amazon account. When buying a book, I select ‘Give as a Gift’ and enter the recipient’s email address. Amazon then sends them a redemption link to the book I’ve purchased. It works for people living in different countries and I have even sent books to friends living in Japan and the UK. However, some books may not be available due to rights holder restrictions published by the book’s publisher. I would always check first to see if the book is available on the local Amazon store for your friend and if not, they may need to access the .com version or even change your Amazon location temporarily.

As someone who has bought and given Kindle books internationally (including receiving some!), I can confirm it generally works really well. You choose the book, click “Give as a Gift” and Amazon takes care of the rest. The recipient does not even need a Kindle – they can read the book on their phone or tablet using free Kindle reading apps. Some restrictions by region can be problematic for certain books, however. Frequently, quite obscure books, even those that are in print locally, will not be redeemable against your Kindle account in other countries. The light novel I was trying to send to my friend in Brazil (a nice Japanese one!), for example, was not available.

You can check a book’s availability in different regions on Amazon’s ‘Manage Your Content and Devices’ page. Alternatively, you could send the recipient an Amazon gift card and they can then purchase the book at their local Amazon store – it’s a little more effort but it has its advantages and ensures that the book will be delivered to them after all!