The state of EU traditional publishing

[fjtorres]

From the Federation of European Publishers, full report PDF, lots of comparative data:
http://fep-fee.us11.list-manage2.com...d&e=70ce53a2fb

Of particular interest, ebook market penetration by country:

[JSWolf]

"Differences in methodology" means the numbers are once again rubbish.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

"Differences in methodology" means the numbers are once again rubbish.

It means you don't compare country to country because different publishers use different definitions for print. You don't worry whether it is 3% or 5%. But if it says 3% it's not going to be 12%.

Within each country the ratio of tradpub ebook to tradpub pbook is accurate because it comes straight from the publisher. Those are currency ratios.

But you're missing the takeaway: eBook penetration in the low single digits, the same as it was in 2010.

The continental ebook market is (intentionally) stagnant.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

It means you don't compare country to country because different publishers use different definitions for print. You don't worry whether it is 3% or 5%. But if it says 3% it's not going to be 12%.

Within each country the ratio of tradpub ebook to tradpub pbook is accurate because it comes straight from the publisher. Those are currency ratios.

But you're missing the takeaway: eBook penetration in the low single digits, the same as it was in 2010.

The continental ebook market is (intentionally) stagnant.

It does, however, totally ignore self-pubbed books. Which make up a fairly significant chunk of eBooks and a totally insignificant number of pBooks which should skew the figures a fair amount.

Which, rather unfortunately, means I have to agree with Jon - the numbers are rubbish.

[darryl]

It's what I would expect from this granny super state. The same arguments which Authors United put forward in the US which were met largely with derision (including some great "fisking" by Joe Konrath) have long been accepted as gospel in Europe. "Culture", meaning the large established publishers and their existing distributions networks must be protected at all costs and damn the consumer.

@MikeB. Your point would certainly be a good one so far as English language books are concerned. I'm not so sure that self-publishing has taken off to the same extent so far as non English language books are concerned. I'm not saying you are wrong. I simply don't know.

So far the EU seems to be slowing the pace of progress over there to a crawl. How long they continue to succeed in doing so remains to be seen.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

It does, however, totally ignore self-pubbed books. Which make up a fairly significant chunk of eBooks and a totally insignificant number of pBooks which should skew the figures a fair amount.

Which, rather unfortunately, means I have to agree with Jon - the numbers are rubbish.

You read the headline, right?

It says tradpub. Not publishing.
Tradpub is reporting *their* nunbers. Are they lying? Are indies secretly and magically selling 90% of all ebooks on the continent? I wouldn't mind seeing a case for either. Can you point to one?

Cause otherwise ebook market share stays in the single digits even with Indies.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

It means you don't compare country to country because different publishers use different definitions for print. You don't worry whether it is 3% or 5%. But if it says 3% it's not going to be 12%.

Within each country the ratio of tradpub ebook to tradpub pbook is accurate because it comes straight from the publisher. Those are currency ratios.

But you're missing the takeaway: eBook penetration in the low single digits, the same as it was in 2010.

The continental ebook market is (intentionally) stagnant.

The methodology has to be the same or you get different results. And those different results means the numbers are not comparable. What this means is the numbers are rubbish. Sorry, but if you deny this, then you are just plain wrong.