15 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections non ction, see here), one by wholesaler Libri.de (checked on September 15, 2012), and several charts at Amazon.de for German commercial and free books and for foreign-language books. Libri.de and Amazon.de do not have separate lists by genre. The MCGfK top 20 ction chart seems to track EPUB-formatted titles (but with no indication given to either formats or the panel behind the chart). It is, however, largely consistent with the respective print bestseller list for July, except that some titles are obviously driven by a particular reader community (as with the Hunger Games trilogy, which recently returned to headlines via the movie adaptation) or by an ebook special (as with a volume from the popu- lar German Perry Rhodan science ction series at rank 16, published by Luebbe and priced at €2.99). The average retail price for the MCGfK list is €9.40—almost the same as that at Weltbild.de, where the average price is €9.47. But Weltbild more aggressively juxtaposes each ebook title with its equivalent price in the print edition, show- ing what a consumer is saving over the digital edition. The EPUB chart at Libri.de is similar to that of MCGfK but does not include any ebooks less than €7.99. The average price is €11.85. An entirely di erent pricing policy is re ected at Amazon.de. Here, there is a separate lists of “free ebooks” posted next to the list of commer- cialized ebooks, which—more importantly—has numer- ous titles at just €0.99 or €2.69 intermingled with Kindle editions from frontlist novels, such as Hunger Games (€12.99), crime star Jussi Adler Olsen (€15.99), and Ken Follett’s Winter of the World (€22.99). It must be emphasized that all of these listed ebooks strictly respect Germany’s xed retail price, so no direct competition on pricing of any one title is shaping those charts yet signi cantly opposing perspectives with regard to marketing are re ected. Overall, the Amazon approach is clearly aiming for a price level as well as a pricing strategy of ebooks that is fundamentally di erent from that of traditional print titles and their marketers, who wish to keep ebooks within the pricing grid of printed books. The situation is also evolving rapidly with regard to the number of titles o ered. The rst half of 2012 has seen ebook sales worth some €7.83 million (plus an additional 3.24 million free downloads, or 41 percent), equal roughly to all sales in 2011 (Media Control, buchre- port September 11, 2012). An Analysis of eBook Bestsellers in Germany Two works of ction in particular may have helped bring ebooks to a wide reading audience: Susanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, which hit German movie screens in early 2012, and E. L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey, the wildly popular fan- ction and self-publishing phenom- enon from Random House. The boost for ebooks comes primarily from the three market leaders in German publishing—Random House, the Holtzbrinck group, and Bonnier (with their Ullstein and Piper imprints)—and a few midsized publishing houses such as Oetinger (publishers of the Hunger Games trilogy, or Lübbe—with 1500 ebook titles avail- able—which succeeded in spearheading the market in genre ction, notably with digital editions of their decade-old Perry Rhodan science ction series). Romance and fantasy books also constitute a signi cant share of ebooks, allowing some small niche players to broaden their presence on the market. A number of publishing companies have started to adjust their in- house organization by creating special departments for ebooks, entertainment (Lübbe), or e-publishing (Aufbau, Gräfe, and Unzer). eBooks also served as a platform for self-published authors to gain a wide audience Amazon announced its rst title (authored by Jonas Winner) to have sold over 100,000 copies in the German Kindle Store, and new bestselling titles continue to emerge from its Kindle Direct Publishing author service. A close-up look at current ebook bestseller lists allows for a more in-depth understanding of develop- ments and patterns. Three bestseller lists are relevant here: one produced by Media Control GfK for July 2012 (referred to as MCGfK, with split charts for ction and
Previous Page Next Page

Extracted Text (may have errors)

15 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections non ction, see here), one by wholesaler Libri.de (checked on September 15, 2012), and several charts at Amazon.de for German commercial and free books and for foreign-language books. Libri.de and Amazon.de do not have separate lists by genre. The MCGfK top 20 ction chart seems to track EPUB-formatted titles (but with no indication given to either formats or the panel behind the chart). It is, however, largely consistent with the respective print bestseller list for July, except that some titles are obviously driven by a particular reader community (as with the Hunger Games trilogy, which recently returned to headlines via the movie adaptation) or by an ebook special (as with a volume from the popu- lar German Perry Rhodan science ction series at rank 16, published by Luebbe and priced at €2.99). The average retail price for the MCGfK list is €9.40—almost the same as that at Weltbild.de, where the average price is €9.47. But Weltbild more aggressively juxtaposes each ebook title with its equivalent price in the print edition, show- ing what a consumer is saving over the digital edition. The EPUB chart at Libri.de is similar to that of MCGfK but does not include any ebooks less than €7.99. The average price is €11.85. An entirely di erent pricing policy is re ected at Amazon.de. Here, there is a separate lists of “free ebooks” posted next to the list of commer- cialized ebooks, which—more importantly—has numer- ous titles at just €0.99 or €2.69 intermingled with Kindle editions from frontlist novels, such as Hunger Games (€12.99), crime star Jussi Adler Olsen (€15.99), and Ken Follett’s Winter of the World (€22.99). It must be emphasized that all of these listed ebooks strictly respect Germany’s xed retail price, so no direct competition on pricing of any one title is shaping those charts yet signi cantly opposing perspectives with regard to marketing are re ected. Overall, the Amazon approach is clearly aiming for a price level as well as a pricing strategy of ebooks that is fundamentally di erent from that of traditional print titles and their marketers, who wish to keep ebooks within the pricing grid of printed books. The situation is also evolving rapidly with regard to the number of titles o ered. The rst half of 2012 has seen ebook sales worth some €7.83 million (plus an additional 3.24 million free downloads, or 41 percent), equal roughly to all sales in 2011 (Media Control, buchre- port September 11, 2012). An Analysis of eBook Bestsellers in Germany Two works of ction in particular may have helped bring ebooks to a wide reading audience: Susanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, which hit German movie screens in early 2012, and E. L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey, the wildly popular fan- ction and self-publishing phenom- enon from Random House. The boost for ebooks comes primarily from the three market leaders in German publishing—Random House, the Holtzbrinck group, and Bonnier (with their Ullstein and Piper imprints)—and a few midsized publishing houses such as Oetinger (publishers of the Hunger Games trilogy, or Lübbe—with 1500 ebook titles avail- able—which succeeded in spearheading the market in genre ction, notably with digital editions of their decade-old Perry Rhodan science ction series). Romance and fantasy books also constitute a signi cant share of ebooks, allowing some small niche players to broaden their presence on the market. A number of publishing companies have started to adjust their in- house organization by creating special departments for ebooks, entertainment (Lübbe), or e-publishing (Aufbau, Gräfe, and Unzer). eBooks also served as a platform for self-published authors to gain a wide audience Amazon announced its rst title (authored by Jonas Winner) to have sold over 100,000 copies in the German Kindle Store, and new bestselling titles continue to emerge from its Kindle Direct Publishing author service. A close-up look at current ebook bestseller lists allows for a more in-depth understanding of develop- ments and patterns. Three bestseller lists are relevant here: one produced by Media Control GfK for July 2012 (referred to as MCGfK, with split charts for ction and

Help

loading