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Data for the top 20 ebook bestsellers in 2012 from nineEuropean countries and the US (provided by Kobo for thisreport’s February 2013 update), may not be representativeof all these markets, given the online retailer’s differentmarket share for each market. However, it provides a valuablebasis for some informative observations and comparisons(the data cover Denmark, France, Germany, Italy,Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US).Across these 200 ebook title entries in ten markets of differentsizes and primary languages, 57 can be attributedto various imprints of Random House, of which 35 are editionsof E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, in their US,UK, and German editions.Scholastic comes in second, with 20 entries, all but two ofwhich are variants of the US edition of Suzanne Collins’Hunger Games trilogy, which the New York-based housesuccessfully sold, in English, across the Scandinavian marketsof Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.George R.R. Martin comes in third with A Dance with Dragons,again part of a series, which sold well across all Europeanmarkets in print but was represented in the Koboebook charts only in the English-language edition acrossScandinavia as well as in Spain. The book is followed byKen Follett’s Giants, with 10 entries, in English, German,and Italian translations.Examining some of these ebook markets more closely, itturns out that, in Germany, France, and Italy, the respectivemarket leaders in print book publishing can greatly expandtheir impact on the ebook charts. In Germany, sevenof the top 20 hits for 2012 came from Random House (notablyFifty Shades of Grey, but also books from domesticauthors, such as young adult writer Charlotte Link). In theFrench top segment, Hachette holds 9 out of 20 positions,while Mondadori holds 12 out of the 20 top ebook titles.Remarkably, in each market, there is also a strong numbertwo, with Luebbe in Germany (an independent publisherthat aggressively and successfully positioned its ebooks inthe emerging market) matching Random House with 7 ofthe 20 top ebooks in 2012. In France, the gap is much wider,as Editis (owned by the Spanish Planeta) and the independentActes Sud (the publisher of Stieg Larsson) eachhas three titles in the highest ranks.The outcome for Spain, with regard to Kobo’s charts, ismore difficult to assess. Twelve of the top 20 positions areheld by ebooks in the English language, with the authorsincluding James Patterson, Karin Slaughter, Ken Follett,and Sylvia Day, aside from the expected E.L. James andSuzanne Collins. Perhaps, a certain bias comes into play, asthe localized Spanish platform of Amazon might catermore broadly to the Spanish audience.In all of Scandinavia, Kobo’s 20 bestselling ebooks are inthe English language, while in the Netherlands, domesticwriters prevail. It must be assumed that these sales patternsreflect the size of the available catalog in each ofthese languages.As for the UK, The Bookseller compiled and compared printand ebook charts by volume for 2012, resulting in a detailedoverview of the top 50 titles. For the first ten monthsof the year, ebooks accounted for some 13% to 14% of allbook sales in terms of units, but given their significantlylower retail prices, they accounted for a more modest 6%to 7% of revenues. The really interesting findings from thechart come not from the very top segment, which is, asexpected, dominated by the Fifty Shades of Grey (withebook volumes between 1.6 and 1 million units) and HungerGames (between 300,000 and 400,000 units), but fromthe following ranks. J.K. Rowling sold a comparatively low59,413 digital copies (and slightly fewer than 400,000 inprint) in the 52 weeks to 29 December. How much ebooksales differ by genre and by reader age is well illustratedby romantic fiction author Jojo Moyes, whose new book,Me Before You (ranked 22 in print), sold 279,349 copies inprint against a stunning 207,000 in digital. By contrast,266,177 print copies of the autobiography of rock legendRod Stewart, ranked 23 in print, were shipped to fans,compared to 19,057 in digital (“Bestselling books of 2012,”The Bookseller, 11 January 2013).Still, with all the possible oddities caused by the limiteddata pool behind this analysis, it becomes clear that, atleast in the early stages of an emerging ebook market, asmall number of smash hits can exert incredible control.The Global eBook Report 106