By Siobhan O’Leary

The head of online retailer buecher.de, Gerd Robertz, discussed November’s double-digit growth in online sales with Buchreport, adding that his own site has seen a sales bump of 15% for the year as a whole.  He also reports that monthly e-book sales for the company are in the five figure range.

Germans have spent more money than ever on digital downloads in 2009, some 250 million Euros according to BITKOM. As reported in BuchMarkt, this was an increase of 18% over 2008. The number of actual downloads increased by 24% to 60 million.

The Boersenblatt highlights Switzerland-based author Oliver Bendel, who is one of the few German language writers specializing in mobile novels. Bendel, who previously wrote everything from poems to fantasy novels, has his hands full now with a series about a Berlin detective named Lucy Luder.  He is in discussions with a variety of institutions about unconventional ideas for readings and promotions. He is also planning a series of novels that will be written in various German dialects, including Swiss German and Turkish-influenced German (for which he is seeking a Turkish co-author).

Correction: The sales figures for the first Saturday of the holiday season in Germany that were provided to the Börsenblatt and covered in Tuesday’s German Buch News were incorrect. Sales were actually up 1.47% over the same day last year.