A report on the global e-book market 2013

[owly]

From the Library Journal "The newest edition of Global eBook: A Report on Market Trends and Developments has been published by Rudiger Wischenbart Content & Consulting. First released in fall 2011, the new edition features the most recent market developments in countries with well-established e-book businesses such as the U.S. and U.K. as well as in countries with newer e-book operations including Germany, China, Brazil, India and Russia.

The Global eBook report documents and analyses how ebook markets emerge in the US, UK, continental Europe, Brazil, China, India, Russia and the Arab world. It combines the best available data and references to specialized local actors, with thematic chapters, focusing on critical policy debates and on key driving forces, notably ebook bestsellers and pricing strategies across European markets, self-publishing, government regulation, piracy, and the expanding impact of global players."

Free through october 2013

Page with download links

Direct PDF link

[Lynx-lynx]

Thanks Owly for your thread.

I must note though that the link opens directly onto a 116 page PDF, without the choice of a 'save' download feature.

Also - as an Australian I was curious as to their report on our consumption etc, and found that as a country we're not included amongst all the countries surveyed, however Australian's usage has been referenced in several places only.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Thanks Owly for your thread.

I must note though that the link opens directly onto a 116 page PDF, without the choice of a 'save' download feature.

Extra link added, and PDF link clarified.

[Katsunami]

In the Netherlands, we have a choice of 10.000 titles in Dutch (including the free classics), according to that report. OOOOWW YEAAAH BABY! *cough* Only 10K in total, while 23K new titles a year are published.

The report says that we're an audience that "has already heavily embraced reading in English".

Nooo... REALLY?

That started way back before e-books already. (edit: Probably helped by the fact that English was a mandatory language in high school, at least in my time. Dutch and English were subjects you could not fail on your final exam. Therefore, all people of around my age speak, read, write and understand at least basic English.)

Maybe that's because most current-day Dutch writing is crap. (edit: I never got farther than half a sample before thinking: "Meh".) The stuff that's not crap, is either a classic, or translated from English, often weeks, months or years after the original work came out. Sometimes, if a publisher feels like it, they just stop translating and you'll mis part of a series. (I'm looking at YOU, Spectrum.)

So, people got the English paperback. Now, with e-books, you'll pay €10 for an e-book (either Dutch or English), while you can get the original version in English for something like €6 or even less. With paperbacks, shopping in other countries was much harder because of shipment costs.

We over here in The Netherlands buy more e-books than any Dutch authority or institute can guess. Only thing is, apart from the people that read only in Dutch, nobody buys them at a Dutch retailer. No, really. Of all the people I know that buy e-books, nobody has ever bought one in a Dutch store, and nobody has ever bought one in Dutch; except one of my aunts.

[Laridae]

Was this meant to be read by a target audience, such as us, of ebook readers? If so then they should have made it available as an epub, rather than a pdf. Thousands of words here but they don't appear to have learned Practical Lesson 1: Everyone hates pdf's since they don't work properly on ereaders.

Also, a quick review of the table of contents revealed nothing I could see on the Canadian market here. Are we just mushed in with the overall North American market, or not worth considering at all?

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by Laridae

Was this meant to be read by a target audience, such as us, of ebook readers? If so then they should have made it available as an epub, rather than a pdf. Thousands of words here but they don't appear to have learned Practical Lesson 1: Everyone hates pdf's since they don't work properly on ereaders.

Also, a quick review of the table of contents revealed nothing I could see on the Canadian market here. Are we just mushed in with the overall North American market, or not worth considering at all?

Reports, such as this, are usually aimed at a business audience and are not intended for people spending their time reading on an actual eReader (presuming you mean eInk) but there is nothing intrinsically wrong with PDFs despite the regular prejudice continually expressed around MR. Like a lot of reports, it is probably expected that many people will print it at the expense of the business and it reads perfectly well (and formatted as intended) on tablets and computers...

As for the Canadian market, well, you may say such things but I couldn't possibly comment...

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Laridae

Was this meant to be read by a target audience, such as us, of ebook readers? If so then they should have made it available as an epub, rather than a pdf.

ePub is available on the page of links. Kindle too, but through Kobo, Amazon, etc, not direct download links. Still free.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Also - as an Australian I was curious as to their report on our consumption etc, and found that as a country we're not included amongst all the countries surveyed, however Australian's usage has been referenced in several places only.

Yes, it's a bit bizarre.

Australia is referenced as one of 4 countries who are considered leaders in e-book adoption. However, the country barely exists in any other part of the report except to say that Australia has a Google Play store.

A little disappointing as I was also interested in what it would say.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by caleb72

Yes, it's a bit bizarre.

Australia is referenced as one of 4 countries who are considered leaders in e-book adoption. However, the country barely exists in any other part of the report except to say that Australia has a Google Play store.

A little disappointing as I was also interested in what it would say.

This makes me think of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where the entry on Earth is just "Harmless" (and changed to "Mostly harmless").

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

This makes me think of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where the entry on Earth is just "Harmless" (and changed to "Mostly harmless").