By Emily Williams MADRID: After ebooks were explicitly excluded from the Madrid Book Fair this past June, two of Spain’s technological innovators have joined forces to organize the country’s first ebook fair. Bubok, an ebook and POD publisher and retailer, and e-Cultura, a consulting company and think tank that combines culture with cutting-edge technology, have announced the creation of the …
German Buch News: Books are #3 in Online Shopping Popularity
By Siobhan O’Leary A recent survey conducted by Bitkom (the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media), published in the Boersenblatt, reveals that books are the third most popular products purchased online. Plane and train tickets were first, while concert tickets came in second. According to Bitkom, 35% of those surveyed have purchased a book online. Music landed …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: Comic-Con, Random vs. UK Agents
By Edward Nawotka San Diego Comic-Con International dominated the blogs and the Web over the weekend. We’ll have a report out in a few days. In the meantime it’s worthwhile checking out PW’s coverage, where Calvin Reid noted that the first day of the show was “strangely subdued, despite being packed with fans,” and “the biggest announcements focused on digital …
German Buch News: Are Printed Maps a Thing of the Past?
By Siobhan O’Leary German publishers may soon realize that the printed map is a thing of the past. According to Buchreport’s latest figures, sales of printed maps declined 21% in mid-2008 and have dropped another 4.6% since this time last year. With more readers turning to the Internet for travel information and more travelers carrying around navigation systems in their …
Austria’s Blackbetty Tackles Arabic Ebooks for Phones
by Chip Rossetti VIENNA: For Jörg Hotter, CEO of Blackbetty Mobilemedia GmbH, a Viennese company that creates the software to make texts readable on mobile phones, the future of publishing looks small. Specifically, he says, it will be the small screens on the 800 varieties of mobile devices currently on the market worldwide that will be the next step in …
Top US/UK Trade Talk: Hachette UK up 3.7%; U. Chicago pubs E-books
By Edward Nawotka In the UK, the Bookseller revealed that Hachette was now leading all other publishers in sales in the UK, largely based on the immense interest in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels. Its sales grew 3.7% and was the only one of the “Big Four” UK publishers — Hachette, Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins — not to have a …
Spain’s Big Three to Form New Digital Distributor
By Emily Williams MADRID & BARCELONA: Spain has not been on the leading edge of the digital revolution up to this point. Now, after years of observing how the market has developed in other countries, the biggest publishing groups in Spain have decided the moment has come to take a big step forward – and they will do it together. …
Bonus Material: Ex-Barcelona Owners Add Competition to Spain’s Ebook Market
By Emily Williams Spain’s Big Three — Planeta, Random House Mondadori, and Santillana — may be forming their own digital distribution company (see article), but they haven’t scared off competition. Two former owners of Catalonia’s Barça soccer team are partnering with educational publisher and distributor Vicens Vives and cooperative retailer and distributor Abacus to form their own digital distribution company, …
Weekly Recap: UKs Myebook, Caribbean Fiction, Tokyo Book Fair
Earlier this week Publishing Perspectives offered you stories you’re not likely to read anywhere else. If you missed any of them, please click on any of the links below. And then, if you like what you read, please forward the link to a friend and encourage them to sign up for our daily newsletter. (Read the recap in Chinese and …
UK’s Myebook Attracts DJs, Gamers, South Americans
By Edward Nawotka CHESHIRE, UK: User generated e-book sites are extremely popular in Asia, where widespread access to cheap broadband connections as well as cutting edge telephone and computer hardware have made them the preferred self-publishing platform for writers. The rest of the world is now picking up on the trend, with new sites launching seemingly every week. Myebook.com is …