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

Nutzung,” Universität Hamburg, January 2012).
    For 2011, in the UK, Amazon announced a five-fold increase in Kindle ebook sales over 2010.

Chapter 11. Forces Shaping the eBook Markets: Key Drivers and Debates
    The evolution of ebook markets is shaped by complex forces, some local, some global, as shown in the introduction (see Part II ).
    In addition, publishers -but also authors, as well as the reading public, the consumers- shape the ebook markets through various choices and strategies. Several key drivers, and debates governing these choices are framing what, in fact, works and what doesn’t.
    Ebook bestsellers are not necessarily the same as in print but allow a better understanding of the dynamics of ebooks as a new market segment, and not just as an additional format that complements printed editions.
Pricing strategies differ significantly between countries and highlight how publishers assess the market potential of ebooks - and how their new competitors challenge their mostly conservative practices.
Many authors opt to self-publish their books as an alternative to the traditional value chain, and find such services offered by a rapidly expanding field of local and global self-publishing platforms and communities, some even -again- proposed by publishing companies.
Readers do not always choose to download their ebooks from legal sources, so piracy must be understood, aside from the involved legal issues, as a reflection of the shifting behaviors of consumers.
In addition, in more and more countries, reading markets develop a bilingual segment, as growing numbers of readers read both in their mothertongue and in English, which introduces both new opportunities and real challenges to local publishers and retailers.
Regulatory frameworks, including the debate on adaptations of copyright law, define an important context for ebooks.
    Each of these sets of parameters and combinations thereof will not only affect each market’s ebook evolution but also frame the interplay of domestic and global factors as they encourage either globalizing or more differentiating forces.
    The aim of this chapter, though, is not to portray each of these factors in every detail for every single market but, rather, to develop an analytical framework to understand the driving forces, the resulting patterns, and the resulting impact of these forces as they are currently reshaping the business of publishing and the culture of authorship and reading.

Ebook Bestsellers and Ebook Pricing Strategies in Europe
    Contradictory strategies
    By the end of 2012, with ebooks having become a normal part of the larger European book markets, a number of obvious questions are emerging. These questions must be answered to identify and asses the driving forces and consumer habits behind the evolution of the book markets and to compare the patterns of print and digital editions.
    In the second half of 2012 and in early 2013, both e-readers and tablets gained popularity everywhere at a fast pace, resulting in an expected increase in book downloads.
    A few spectacular blockbuster titles, notably the erotic trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, received such widespread media coverage that they must also have been downloaded in great numbers. By January 2013, The New York Times reported 40,000 digital units sold in France alone — a number that must be compared to 900,000 printed volumes (The New York Times, January 16, 2013 ). This would give ebooks a share of 4.4% over print sales, which is clearly higher than the estimated 1 to 1.5% of the market share that ebooks were expected to account for in the overall book market in France by late 2012. However, the comparison also hints at the fact that, so far, ebooks are almost all fiction — and in some significant cases self-help and how-to books — with the strongest bestsellers accounting for the lion’s share.
    The French translation of Fifty Shades of Grey cost a substantial €11.99, compared to £3.46 in the UK and $8.77 in the US. The German Kindle edition was sold at €9.99, the Italian at €6.99, and the Spanish at €9.49. In Sweden, readers paid a mark-up as if the book were strong liquor, given the hefty price tag of 137 kronor, or €15.80.
    Going further into the details reveals rather more confusion and less clarity about the driving forces and policies behind such differences. Worse, any attempt to understand how ebooks sell across various European markets and editions is hindered