Google Play Saudi Arabia

[JRTomlin]

I just received an email from someone complaining that my novels are not available on Google Play Saudi Arabia. I can't figure out why or what to do about it. Do they even HAVE a customer service? There are so many GP markets, I hadn't realised that one was missing until someone contacted me. 🤷

Anyone have a clue why this would be or how to fix it?

Edit: Well, I found customer service link and emailed them. As far as I can tell, Saudi Arabia isn't on the list of regions on any of my novels assuming that the code for it is SA.

[LilyBLily]

Wouldn't SA mean South Africa?

[Eric Thomson]

South Africa is ZA.

Saudi Arabia is SA, and it's not one of the countries listed by GP.

[JRTomlin]

Yet if you do a google search on Google Play Saudi Arabia results come up. 🤔

I hardly think it would be a big market, but I did receive an email from someone there complaining about it. Oh, well. I passed it along to GP. I haven't a clue.

ETA: According to the person who emailed me, in his second email he said that some authors are included in Google Play Saudi Arabia but many are not. He says that GP is the platform he normally buys from there and that he has been trying to get more authors listed. The novel in question is in a BB promo at the moment and he said that was how he found it. So... as I said, no clue what's up with that.

[JRTomlin]

I will say that the response from Google Play was both prompt and interesting, if not totally satisfactory.

Hi,

Thanks for reaching out to us and sharing your concern.

I understand that you wish to report the unavailability of your books in Saudi Arabia. Please note that the opportunity to provide books in Middle Eastern countries is currently limited to a specific set of partners.We hope to extend this opportunity to more publishers in the future. We appreciate your patience in this regards.

You can refer to the table in the Help Center link mentioned below to find out which countries/regions Google Play Books currently supports:
https://support.google.com/books/partner/table/6052428?hl=en

Also, thanks for using the Feedback tool in your Partner Center account. While this is the best way to submit comments and suggestions, and we make sure to read all of them, we're unable to reply to everything that comes to us through this channel.

You can direct future questions to our support team by visiting our help center and clicking Contact us at the top right.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions. I’d be happy to help.

Best regards,
Bhavtosh
The Google Play Books Team

So apparently there is a Saudi store, it is just not open to most vendors.

With issues of strict religious rules and political volitility... Who knows. 🤷