The Global eBook Report: Current Conditions & Future Projections. Update October 2013

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    Offline retailers
    Offline retailers are also making a foray into ebook retail segment. In September 2012, Landmark retail chain’s online store announced an ebooks section, and an Android-based e-reader app. Landmark’s catalogue seems to be made of foreign ebooks, aggregated from an international distribution service.
    The other leading book retail chain, Crossword , is poised to launch its ebooks retail channel by October 2013 or so, according to Kinjal Shah, the company’s COO. [N10] Crossword’s plan to launch ebook retailing space has been on the anvil since September 2012.
    Telecom companies join in
    The telecom operator Aircel has launched Aircel BookMate , an ebook store for its subscribers, in mid-September 2013. The store will allow its subscribers to browse, download and read books, magazines, and comics on their smartphone, tablets and PCs, through a monthly subscription or one-time purchase. But one needs to have an Aircel number to register. The Aircel BookMate app for Android smartphone can be downloaded from the Google Play Store, while the iPad and iPhone app appears to be in development.
    In early September 2013, Vodafone tied up with Rockstand , the ereading app, to provide Vodafone subscribers to buy digital content available on the app through their mobile bills or balance. Vodafone users are now able to purchase books and magazines at Rs 7 ($0.12) per day, cheaper than the current prices of ebook and emagazines offered on the app.
    (Telecom operator _Bharti Airtel_’s mEducation initiative in the educational content space has been mentioned above.)
    By all indications, most publishers of ebooks realize the value of releasing books across all platforms, and they are experimenting with creating their own reader apps. With the Android platform being the most popular operating system in India, the Android-based apps would be the first choice. Cloud computing is offering a solution to create reader applications for different operating systems, which allows readers to migrate between devices and platforms with greater ease, while being locked down to the distribution platform.
    Ebook publishers are faced with the problems of book discovery, and many are investing in strengthening their marketing efforts online, especially through social media. Except in the case of Penguin and Sterling, the publishers do not give information about the availability of their e-editions on their own website as yet. Many publishers are yet to adopt an integrated workflow, from manuscript creation to output, and also in following global standards for metadata.
    Formats and pricing
    Publishers in India are exploring with all formats and platforms. While most started with releasing PDFs, awareness about other formats is growing now. Open formats like EPUB and MOBI are becoming popular. DRM is seen to be a solution for digital piracy, so publishers are becoming familiar with DRM.
    Publishers are experimenting with pricing too. Ebooks are available from as less as Rs 40 ($0.66) going up to Rs 350 ($6), for trade books originating in India. Ebooks sourced from foreign publishers are priced higher. Since India has been a market for low-priced editions, especially in trade publishing, price was not thought to be a differentiator when it came to ebooks. But that is could change soon. There is a lot of experimentation going on with pricing norms.
    Earlier this year, most ebook publishers began by pricing printed books and ebooks almost at par; or pricing the ebooks, just less than the print version. With more ebook platforms coming up, there seems to be a shift.
    Penguin’s title Can Love Happen Twice by Ravinder Singh , from its popular MetroReads imprint, is priced at Rs 125 ($2.08) in print and sells at Rs 65 ($1.08) on the Kindle store and Flipkart. Similarly, the paperback of Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi (Westland) is priced at Rs 225 ($3.75), but both, the Kindle and Flipkart editions, are priced at Rs 72 ($1.2). The nearly 50% difference in price in two editions, among the popular, commercial fiction titles are not seen in the literary fiction titles. For instance, HarperCollins’ India: A Traveller’s Literary Companion by Chandrahas Choudhury is priced at Rs 399 ($6.7; hardback) and it’s Kindle edition is priced at Rs 314 ($5.2), whereas the Flipkart edition is priced at Rs 359 ($6).
    Similarly, in literary non-fiction too the difference is not 50%. Hachette India’s newly revised title, 24