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

book publishing can greatly expand their impact on the ebook charts. In Germany, seven of the top 20 hits for 2012 came from Random House (notably Fifty Shades of Grey, but also books from domestic authors, such as young adult writer Charlotte Link). In the French top segment, Hachette holds 9 out of 20 positions, while Mondadori holds 12 out of the 20 top ebook titles.
    Remarkably, in each market, there is also a strong number two, with Luebbe in Germany (an independent publisher that aggressively and successfully positioned its ebooks in the emerging market) matching Random House with 7 of the 20 top ebooks in 2012. In France, the gap is much wider, as Editis (owned by the Spanish Planeta ) and the independent Actes Sud (the publisher of Stieg Larsson) each has three titles in the highest ranks.
    The outcome for Spain, with regard to Kobo’s charts, is more difficult to assess. Twelve of the top 20 positions are held by ebooks in the English language, with the authors including James Patterson, Karin Slaughter, Ken Follett, and Sylvia Day, aside from the expected E.L. James and Suzanne Collins. Perhaps, a certain bias comes into play, as the localized Spanish platform of Amazon might cater more broadly to the Spanish audience.
    In all of Scandinavia, Kobo’s 20 bestselling ebooks are in the English language, while in the Netherlands, domestic writers prevail. It must be assumed that these sales patterns reflect the size of the available catalog in each of these languages.
    As for the UK, The Bookseller compiled and compared print and ebook charts by volume for 2012, resulting in a detailed overview of the top 50 titles. For the first ten months of the year, ebooks accounted for some 13% to 14% of all book sales in terms of units, but given their significantly lower retail prices, they accounted for a more modest 6% to 7% of revenues. The really interesting findings from the chart come not from the very top segment, which is, as expected, dominated by the Fifty Shades of Grey (with ebook volumes between 1.6 and 1 million units) and Hunger Games (between 300,000 and 400,000 units), but from the following ranks. J.K. Rowling sold a comparatively low 59,413 digital copies (and slightly fewer than 400,000 in print) in the 52 weeks to 29 December. How much ebook sales differ by genre and by reader age is well illustrated by romantic fiction author Jojo Moyes, whose new book, Me Before You (ranked 22 in print), sold 279,349 copies in print against a stunning 207,000 in digital. By contrast, 266,177 print copies of the autobiography of rock legend Rod Stewart, ranked 23 in print, were shipped to fans, compared to 19,057 in digital (“Bestselling books of 2012,” The Bookseller , January 11, 2013).
    Still, with all the possible oddities caused by the limited data pool behind this analysis, it becomes clear that, at least in the early stages of an emerging ebook market, a small number of smash hits can exert incredible control.
    However, the exceptions to this rule should not escape the observer.
    In Germany, for instance, self-published author Jonas Winner managed to get two of his Berlin Gothic titles in the top 20 and in several markets, a few companies (some reposiitioned old houses and some newly created specifically for the digital challenges ahead) are succeeding in the tough game.
    Some medium-sized houses opted early to have a role in digital publishing, such as Gallimard in France, Oetinger in Germany and Grupo editoriale Mauri Spagnol (GeMS) in Italy. In the Netherlands, De Arbeiderspers | A.W. Bruna Uitgevers developed a relevant (and in various regards innovative) role in the ebook sector for its old brand.
    2012 has also seen the ascent of several new brands or old houses with a new, decidedly innovative emphasis on digital publishing, which is again reflected by the presence of their titles in the top segment. Examples include Bastei Lübbe in Germany, a publishing company founded in 1949, mostly known for their pulp literature in the subgenres of romance, crime, and the Wild West but recently transformed into one of the leading digital houses for various kinds of popular literature in digital formats — a conversion comparable to that of Canadian Harlequin .
    In Spain, the literary press Ediciones B of Barcelona opted to create a new company in 2011, B de Books , a digital-only publisher that releases 300 ebooks (of which 250 are new releases) plus four apps per year, aggressively priced between €1.99