How to order the Niklas and Friends comic book
at a German online book shop

 

I have picked www.amazon.de. They deliver german books worldwide but for a weird reason the whole ordering procedure is in German language. Use this guide to make your way through the procedure.

First off, you need a valid credit card. Either Visa/Electron, Eurocard/Mastercard or American Express. Amazon Germany doesn't accept orders from foreign countries without a credit card. And of course you'll need a postal address and an e-mail address. The e-mail address is just for feedback messages. Since amazon.de will send you advertising e-mails to that address later, I recommend to take a temporary address.

 

Ready? Okay. Visit www.amazon.de with your browser. Make a search ("Suchen" or "Schnellsuche" -- the button "Los" means "go!") on my name, Niklas Edlund. (Don't select 'English Books' before you do the search! You will not find my cartoons if you do that. Though "Anything But Girls" is completely in English language, amazon puts it under German Books -- "Deutsche Bücher".) The website will show you then the two versions of my comic book. Pick the second one, "Anything But Girls", by clicking on the title.

The next page will show you the comic book again and some information. "Gewöhnlich versandfertig" means 'ready to send out', "... in 24 Stunden" means 'within 24 hours', "... in 1 bis 2 Werktagen" means 'within 1 or 2 workdays'. Look to the right side for the button "In den Einkaufswagen" ("into the shopping cart") and click on it.

 

The next page contains some random book offers and a blue box on the right side. Only this blue box is actually your "shopping cart". It should show the thumbnail picture of the Niklas and Friends comic book now. "Broschiert" means 'paperback' (of course, it's no hardcover book -- its size is 21 cm (8 inches) x 29,7 cm (11.5 inches), just in case you think that a 'paperback' is always a small book). The small word "Anzahl: 1" is important! "Anzahl" means 'number of copies'. If you want to order more than just one copy, you have to click on the button "Zum Einkaufswagen" ('To the shopping cart') a little lower in that blue box.

 

On the following page you'll have the chance to change the number ("Anzahl") from 1 to any number you like. Type into the grey box the number of copies you want, then click on the button "Aktualisieren" ('refresh') above that number and amazon will show you the added prizes ("Zwischensumme") of your copies. For example, if you changed the "Anzahl" to 3, the "Zwischensumme" should be EUR 38,70 after a click on "Aktualisieren".
Click on the button "Zur Kasse gehen" ('Go to the cash') on the right side when you're sure that the Anzahl/number of copies is what you want.

 

Now it's time for registration stuff. The next page asks you for your e-mail address ("Geben Sie Ihre E-Mail-Adresse ein:"). This address is for notifications about the delivery. None of those notifications will require an answer. But amazon will refuse your order if it's no valid address.
Now check the round button beside "Ich bin ein neuer Kunde" ('I am a new customer') if it isn't already filled out black. The other option is for registered customers and their password. Leave that blank.
Now click on "Weiter (über den Sicherheitsserver)" ('Proceed (using the secure server connection)'). Your browser will probably inform you that you have chosen a https webpage.

 

The next page requests your postal address.
"Vor- und Nachname" = First name and last name
"Firmenname (optional)" = Company name (optional) -- leave this blank!
"Straße und Hausnummer" = Street, number
"Stadt" = City
"Bundesland/Kanton (optional)" = County/region (optional) -- leave this blank or put in your federal state if you live in a federation and it's usually part of your postal address, especially in the USA or Canada
"Postleitzahl" = Postal Code
"Land" = Country -- this pulldown menu unfortunately contains only the German names of the countries in the world. If you're not sure which one is your country click here for a list with translations.
"Telefonnummer für Rückfragen" = Telephone number for the case of a request -- you might put here anything that starts with +4. Amazon never ever called me on the phone even when the ordered thing wasn't available any more. So I'd say it doesn't have to be your real number.
"Ist diese Adresse auch Ihre Rechnungsadresse?" = Is this address identical with the address for the bill? -- I doubt that you can order the book to another address, for example if you want to make it a birthday gift for a friend, when you don't live in Germany or Austria. So, leave it checked on "Ja" = Yes. The parcel with the book will contain the bill then.
Whew! If everything is alright now, click on "Weiter" ('proceed').

 

Now you should have your credit card at hand. You'll see that you can pick from Visa/Electron, Eurocard/Mastercard and American Express your card under "Zahlungsweise - Eine neue Kreditkarte eingeben" ('Kind of payment - Add a new credit card').
Next is "Konto- bzw. Kreditkartennummer" ('Account- or credit-card-number'). Type in the (usually) 16 numerals on your credit card, usually without spaces.
Then "Name des Karteninhabers" = name of credit card owner -- fill in the name that's imprinted on your credit card.
Last is "Gültig bis" = Good Thru -- which is also imprinted on the card.
The next lines are about other ways to pay that you can't choose when you don't live in Germany or Austria. Skip them until "Geben Sie ein Passwort ein" = Create a password here. This password will identify you on amazon.de. You can't leave this blank. So, type in a word that you can remember later and repeat it at "Bitte nochmal eingeben" = 'please repeat it'.
Click on the button "Weiter" ('proceed'). If there's any mistake in your stuff, you'll see the same page again, this time with a red headline. Check it again. Maybe the credit card number must have a space after each group of four numerals. (I hate it when they don't tell this in these order forms!)

 

 

If you have ever used your credit card before to buy something on the internet, you know that the credit card service will now ask you for the short control number. On my Visa card it's printed on the back side in the field with my signature. It has seven numerals. The first four are the last part of my credit card number. The other three numerals are the control number. These three numerals are what I'd have to type in to confirm my order.
If you're not sure where to find this control number on your credit card, visit the website of your credit card provider and look for information. You'll need this information anyway if you want to use your credit card on the internet.

 

That's it. Now you can only wait. Amazon will send you three e-mails that welcome you, confirm your order ("Ihre Bestellung bei Amazon.de" = Your order at Amazon.de) and notify about the delivery ("Ihre Amazon.de Bestellung wurde versandt" = We sent out your Amazon.de order today). The last one means that everything is now on its way and that it depends on how quick your postman is when you will receive a solid cardboard envelope from amazon. This takes usually about two weeks into countries of the EU, the USA and Japan and about three weeks into the rest of the world.

The shipping costs are:

Country when you order only one copy of my comic book plus each copy that you add
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg no shipping costs no shipping costs
Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom 5.60 Euros + 0.93 Euros
all other European countries, such as Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and so on 13 Euros + 2 Euros
USA, Japan 15.50 Euros + 2.50 Euros
Rest of the world (for example South America or Australia) 15.50 Euros + 2.50 Euros

Your credit card institute will automatically change your local money into Euros. But you can see that the shipping costs into most countries, especially East Europe and outside Europe, are really expensive. If you live in Russia and order a single comic book, you'll have to pay 12.90 + 13.00 = 25.90 Euros. You can see that it would be way cheaper if you found a few friends who'd like to have a copy, too, so that you can share the shipping costs.

Amazon delivers the books in the same cardboard boxes that they use for any other books. As long as this box isn't real big or heavy there's no reason why your customs should open it. Depending on the laws about taxes and toll, they might want you to pay toll if you order a big number of copies. That's why I recommend to order not more than five copies at a time.

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