By Siobhan O’Leary

Rowohlt has taken the unusual step of repackaging the latest book by “medical comedian” Dr. Eckard von Hirschhausen, the happiness guide Glück kommt selten allein…” (Luck rarely comes alone…) as a limited edition of 150,000 copies that includes a diary with quotations from the author, a set of postcards, a CD of the author reading from the book, as well as tea and a teacup. The book has already been on the Spiegel bestseller list for six months and has already sold 800,000 copies since it was published in February, according to BuchMarkt. His previous book published with Rowohlt, a humor book of medical advice, entitled “Die Leber wächst mit ihren Aufgaben” (The Liver grows with its duties) sold some 1.5 million copies.

E-Books can no longer be relegated to the status of a niche market, according to e-book-news.de as reported in BuchMarkt. The article quotes a report from US market research firm In-Stat which predicts that 28 million e-Readers will be sold by 2013 — a nearly 30-fold increase over the 1 million that had been sold as of 2008.