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

The user experience and discovery experience vary greatly among the popular eBook shops and are still in need of development. Along with analysis of sales reports and continual improvement of metadata, trade marketing is becoming increasingly important. How do I turn an available product into a discoverable product? How do I get placements and cooperation with major eBook shops that will enhance sales? Which marketing tools help with circulating titles, information and text samples in the social web? On which platforms and communities must title metadata be available? How do I guarantee the quality of this information and that it can be updated?
    Creating smart data
    It is essential that publishers are able to quickly draw the right conclusions from their own digital strategy. Which title and which genre have been successful in which sales channel and at which price in the various countries?
    We live in a world of constant “beta”, where we have to keep on checking and updating strategies and marketing. Publishers have to sift out the relevant smart data from the mound of data available and turn it to practical use. Speed and perfect analysis are increasingly becoming crucial factors for the success of digital publications.
    eBook distribution made easy
    Bookwire was established in 2009 with the aim of offering a service to independent publishers of all sizes, in order to open up the new digital market quickly, simply and skilfully, from production and quality management, distribution and marketing in all relevant digital sales channels to transparent statements and analysis of all sales.
    Bookwire provides solutions for publishers that want a slice of the digital pie while it is still hot, quickly, flexibly and with as much technical and content-related know-how as possible. Together with our clients, we have created distribution solutions for digital and audio books that facilitate future-orientated, fast, reliable and successful global distribution and marketing of digital content.
    Changing challenges of the digital market
    Not a week goes by on the digital market that doesn’t bring with it a technical innovation, a new sales channel, a new business model or a new marketing tool to which a content provider needs to react. A clean and flexible technical process chain is essential for implementing new product strategies. This process chain enables a response to be made to demands and publishers’ innovations to catch on in the shop and with customers.
    Bookwire helps publishers to cope with the challenges of reduced innovation times, rapid product-publication cycles, global distribution, the new eBook player, new quality management requirements as well as new legal issues. By pushing ahead with innovation and trial and error today, we gain the competitive advantage for tomorrow.

Chapter 7. Europe

Denmark
    With a population under 5.5 million (yet in one of Europe’s most developed regions, located between Germany and Sweden), Denmark hosts a significant publishing industry, with internationally active groups such as Egmont and Gyldendal, as well as significant local branches of major players in both publishing and retail from other Scandinavian countries, including Swedish Bonnier. The majority of the highly educated reading audience is fluent in English, to the point where translations into Danish are significantly impacted.
    Local publishers — notably, Egmont, Gyldendal, Lindhardt og Ringhof, Politikens Forlag, and People’s Press — have started to release ebooks and are extending their catalog to an expected list of 13,000 titles by early 2013. Distribution has been organized through a consortium-driven platform, Publizon , which was founded in 2005.
    Publizon is a platform for distributing ebooks and electronic audiobooks, which are “sold by the affiliated retailers. Publizon handles the task of assembling the content from numerous content providers and distributes this catalog to the associated retailers who can be both Internet bookstores and brick-and-mortar retailers” (company statement). Publizon is currently focusing on PDF and EPUB formats. The platform releases a weekly top ten ebook bestseller list, which currently displays a significant share of Scandinavian fiction, including authors Jo Nesbo and Jussi Adler-Olsen but also internationally acclaimed writers such as Haruki Murakami.
    Table 7-6. Denmark
    Key Indicators
Values
Sources, comments
Book market size (p+e, at consumer