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for individual authors. It has grown into a significant segmentof the publishing industry altogether. Since 2010,global leaders from both the distribution and the publishingside of the business have launched or acquired majoroperations targeted at the quickly expanding segment.By mid-2012, Amazon’s CreateSpace was seen as the segment’smarket leader, publishing 57,602 titles, followed byAuthorSolutions with 41,605 (Publishers Weekly, June 4,2012). Of these titles, 45% are fiction and 41% are also releasedas ebooks (Bowker, June 5, 2012).Apple through its platform iBooks Author focuses primarilyon illustrated works, enriched by embedded multimedia,as in the case of educational materials or cookbooks.Kobo expanded its branded self-publishing service WritingLife,as did Barnes & Noble by rebranding its PubIt serviceas NookPress, and all these efforts seem to be rewardingfor the platform operators, as reportedly, 25% of all Nooksales are self-published ebooks.The market research firm Bowker has launched a dedicatedresource for self-published authors, which includes “tools,advice, and resources for navigating the publishing process,serving a burgeoning market of authors who are bypassingthe traditional publishing route to take total controlof their book projects.” (Bowker press release, 20 May2013).Authors are, however, not targeted only by online bookretail and distribution platforms. In addition, leading internationalpublishing groups have stepped up their effortsto offer alternative propositions to their authors totheir conventional title selection and editorial and marketingservices.The afore mentioned AuthorSolutions was acquired byPenguin in the summer of 2012 for $116 million (PublishersLunch, July 19, 2012). With BookCountry, Penguin also runsa community platform for exchange between authors.In addition to such platforms from the largest internationalactors and other US-based companies that broke theground for digital self-publishing -such as Lulu- scores ofmore local and more specialized authoring and book creationsolutions have recently emerged, and many combinethe operation of book production and distribution, withthe creation of book and reading communities.US based Smashwords, claiming to be “the largest, global,indie, self-publishing digital outlet”, has announced plansto expand into other territories and languages. (PublishingPerspectives, 10 April 2013).In Germany, the range of platforms and community in theself-publishing segment has formed a thriving sector sofast that it requires its own specialized portal for guidance,the Selfpublisher Bible. In a first survey, the bible’s MatthiasMatting found in June 2013 that one out of four selfpublishedGerman authors had so far published only onetitle, 30% had released between 3 and 5 books, and 91%publish ebooks, of which 60% use the services of a specializeddistributor to bring their titles to the market, as almosthalf became involved in authoring their own booksto earn money.BOD - or books on demand -, founded over 10 years agoby wholesaler Libri, has grown into a complete service forself-published authors, as has ePubli, a platform operatedby the Holtzbrinck group, which also combines print as wellas ebook creation. ePubli has recently announced plans toexpand internationally, with a first branch set up in the UK.Germany-based Xinxii claims to be Europe’s leading distributionplatform for self-published books, and operatesservices in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese,Spanish and, since early 2013, Russian.In the Netherlands, the leading local online retailer,BOL.com is involved in the launch of Bravenewbooks.nl,together with the self-publishing portal Mijnbestseller.In France, Mon Best Seller is a service offered to authors topublish their books free of charge, and readers can readthese books free of charge online. Additional services forpromotion and on-demand printing must be paid for. Asimilar model, characterized as “free publishing”, is providedby TheBookEdition.In Spain, Roca Editores, one of the founding partners ofebook distributor Libranda, has launched a complete servicefor the self-publishing and distribution of ebooks.With Bookworks, an organization specializing in self-helpfor self-published authors, has been set up at first in theUS, yet with a global vocation.Subscription platforms andreading communitiesOnline reading communities dedicated to ebooks and invitingreaders to engage in various forms, while allowingpublishers to target audiences in the digital universe arearound for some time.The Global eBook Report 110