43 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections aggregator or distributor was necessary thus Xeriph was born. Its catalog today brings together roughly 10,000 titles and 200 publishers. The company has been creative in developing its distribution models, from selling games to aggregating content for universities and libraries. DLD launched in April 2011, after months of prepara- tion by six of the largest Brazilian publishers: Record, Sextante, Planeta, L&PM, Rocco, and Objetiva. In August 2012, Novo Conceito, the house of Nicholas Sparks in Brazil, joined the sextet. Originally DLD was a defensive movement, a print publishers’ club to keep out digital interlopers. After a while, though, the club members realized that ebooks were an opportunity, not a threat. By the time they all reached that conclusion, they already had a functioning platform and signed deals. In August 2012, DLD o ered 1,500 titles in their catalog. This number might be misleading, however. A glance at the PublishNews bestsellers list, which provides the most reliable ranking in Brazil, will show that DLD publishers are responsible for 35 percent of the print bestsellers on the list from January to August 2012. DLD has been pushing hard to avoid deep discounting by the ebook- sellers. In August, they were asking clients to sign an addendum to their distribution contract that limited discounts to as little as 5 percent. Foreign aggregators, such as Overdrive and Ingram, are present in Brazil, too, supplying foreign-language content. However, Ingram is more active, both as print- book distributor and as print-on-demand supplier in partnership with a local digital printer. It is likely, then, that they are very attentive to the country’s ebook market. The “Good Problem” of Brazilian Taxes Amazon, Kobo, Apple, Google: They all complain about the Brazilian tax system, and use it as an excuse for delays in launching locally. The tax problem, however, is in essence a good one: books are absolutely tax-free in Brazil. That is, the only taxes a publisher pays are on earnings and personnel taxes—there are no VAT or sales titles, and Amazon has about 6,000. We should note, however, that most of the Amazon titles are self-pub- lished books from the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) program, public-domain editions, or European titles from Portugal. One source in the market judged Amazon’s commercial catalog to be only about 1,000 titles. This is similar to the case of Barnes & Noble’s Nook Portuguese catalog. In the beginning of September 2012, Nook had around 2,300 Portuguese ebooks, but most of them were European editions or generic public- domain titles. (It is important to note that there are considerable di erences between European and Brazilian Portuguese. In Brazil, a medical or engineering student would probably not mind reading a textbook written in European Portuguese, but most readers would put down a trade book that used European spelling and grammar.) In any case, even if we look at the size of just the commercial catalog, the growth is signi cant. In August 2011, Saraiva and Gato Sabido together had only 5,000 titles in their catalogs. That means that both stores doubled their catalogs within a year. Overall, if we sub- tract Amazon’s 5,000 self-published and public-domain titles from the 16,000 total, we end up with a catalog of about 11,000 commercial ebooks in the Brazilian market. In addition, though Livraria Cultura was not consid- ered in Revolução eBook’s study, they reported having 11,000 digital titles at the end of August 2012. Brazilian Distributors and Aggregators There are two distributors of note in Brazil: Xeriph and DLD. If you happen to be a company from Seattle, Toronto, or California, you will need to talk to them and get their blessing if you hope to enter the Brazilian market quickly. Xeriph is a local version of American Overdrive or Ingram DLD is a tropical version of Spanish Libranda. Xeriph, which belongs to the owners of Gato Sabido, controls the largest ebook catalog in the country. After Gato Sabido built its platform, it became clear that an
Previous Page Next Page

Extracted Text (may have errors)

43 : The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections aggregator or distributor was necessary thus Xeriph was born. Its catalog today brings together roughly 10,000 titles and 200 publishers. The company has been creative in developing its distribution models, from selling games to aggregating content for universities and libraries. DLD launched in April 2011, after months of prepara- tion by six of the largest Brazilian publishers: Record, Sextante, Planeta, L&PM, Rocco, and Objetiva. In August 2012, Novo Conceito, the house of Nicholas Sparks in Brazil, joined the sextet. Originally DLD was a defensive movement, a print publishers’ club to keep out digital interlopers. After a while, though, the club members realized that ebooks were an opportunity, not a threat. By the time they all reached that conclusion, they already had a functioning platform and signed deals. In August 2012, DLD o ered 1,500 titles in their catalog. This number might be misleading, however. A glance at the PublishNews bestsellers list, which provides the most reliable ranking in Brazil, will show that DLD publishers are responsible for 35 percent of the print bestsellers on the list from January to August 2012. DLD has been pushing hard to avoid deep discounting by the ebook- sellers. In August, they were asking clients to sign an addendum to their distribution contract that limited discounts to as little as 5 percent. Foreign aggregators, such as Overdrive and Ingram, are present in Brazil, too, supplying foreign-language content. However, Ingram is more active, both as print- book distributor and as print-on-demand supplier in partnership with a local digital printer. It is likely, then, that they are very attentive to the country’s ebook market. The “Good Problem” of Brazilian Taxes Amazon, Kobo, Apple, Google: They all complain about the Brazilian tax system, and use it as an excuse for delays in launching locally. The tax problem, however, is in essence a good one: books are absolutely tax-free in Brazil. That is, the only taxes a publisher pays are on earnings and personnel taxes—there are no VAT or sales titles, and Amazon has about 6,000. We should note, however, that most of the Amazon titles are self-pub- lished books from the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) program, public-domain editions, or European titles from Portugal. One source in the market judged Amazon’s commercial catalog to be only about 1,000 titles. This is similar to the case of Barnes & Noble’s Nook Portuguese catalog. In the beginning of September 2012, Nook had around 2,300 Portuguese ebooks, but most of them were European editions or generic public- domain titles. (It is important to note that there are considerable di erences between European and Brazilian Portuguese. In Brazil, a medical or engineering student would probably not mind reading a textbook written in European Portuguese, but most readers would put down a trade book that used European spelling and grammar.) In any case, even if we look at the size of just the commercial catalog, the growth is signi cant. In August 2011, Saraiva and Gato Sabido together had only 5,000 titles in their catalogs. That means that both stores doubled their catalogs within a year. Overall, if we sub- tract Amazon’s 5,000 self-published and public-domain titles from the 16,000 total, we end up with a catalog of about 11,000 commercial ebooks in the Brazilian market. In addition, though Livraria Cultura was not consid- ered in Revolução eBook’s study, they reported having 11,000 digital titles at the end of August 2012. Brazilian Distributors and Aggregators There are two distributors of note in Brazil: Xeriph and DLD. If you happen to be a company from Seattle, Toronto, or California, you will need to talk to them and get their blessing if you hope to enter the Brazilian market quickly. Xeriph is a local version of American Overdrive or Ingram DLD is a tropical version of Spanish Libranda. Xeriph, which belongs to the owners of Gato Sabido, controls the largest ebook catalog in the country. After Gato Sabido built its platform, it became clear that an

Help

loading