One of my reasons for publishing Arabs Without God as an e-book was to get around the problems of distribution and censorship in the Middle East. But now, just a day after it was released published, some would-be readers in the region are finding that it's not so simple. They are getting a message from Amazon which says:

This title is not available for customers from: Middle East

A would-be reader in Egypt also reports not being allowed to even preview it on Amazon's website.
  

 
As far as I can tell, this isn't a case of censorship by Amazon but part of a wider problem with international distribution. I'm not sure of the exact reasons but some say it relates to copyright laws (or lack of) in certain countries. There's an article here discussing it in connection with Africa.

I have seen several suggestions for work-arounds. One is to change your location in the Amazon account settings. It may also be possible to purchase an Amazon gift voucher and use that to buy the book.

I can't say for sure that either of these will work for you, but if you decide to try them, please let us know of the result through the comments section below. Also, any further suggestions of work-arounds or accounts of your experiences trying to order the book are welcome.

There's further discussion here on Facebook.

In the meantime, I'm exploring additional distribution options. I still think the digital format is the simplest way of getting the book to the largest number of readers but I'm also looking at the print option as an additional channel.