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ItalyKey Indicators Values Sources,commentsBook market size (p+e,at consumer prices)Titles published peryear (new andsuccessive editions)New titles per 1 millioninhabitantseBook titles (availablefrom publishers)Key marketparameters€3,072 million Publishers Association63,800 2012, AIE, PublishersAssociation104971.283 March 2013 (up from31,416 in March 2012;e-kitab/InformazioniEditoriali, andPublishers AssociationAIE)Fixed book price, yet withpossibilities for discountson print books of around15 %, notably in PRcampaigns, newlyintroduced in 2012. VAT is4 % on printed books,against 20% on ebooks.Ebook sales in Italy had shown strong growth since early2012, but from very modest beginnings, to €12.6 million,or a market share of 0.9% in trade by fall 2012 (announcementby AIE at the Frankfurt Book Fair, quoted in The Bookseller,11 October 2012).Yet the update reflected significant growth of 740% from2011, when the Italian Publishers Association had estimatedthe ebook market at €3.7 million at cover prices, or0.2% of the overall book market (Giornale delle libreria, 3March 2012). At some trade publishers, revenue fromebooks accounts for up to 2% (information provided byGeMS for this report.)The low overall penetration may hide complex dynamicsin the Italian marketplace.The European financial crisis put the book market undersevere pressure. Recent years have been characterized bysignificant changes in the performance of the largest publishinggroups. The Mondadori group maintained its leadingposition, but RCS saw its presence diminishing, includingthe model of part-time works—distributing books togetherwith popular magazines at kiosks—diminishing,and even affecting its strongly branded French arm, Flammarion(to Gallimard in 2012). The Grupo MauriSpagnol,rebranded as GeMS a few years ago, expanded its reach.Both Mondadori and GeMS spearheaded digital developments,each by setting up distribution platforms: Mondadorifor its own purposes and GeMS by forming a consortium(eDigita) with Flammarion and Feltrinelli.For a listing of companies, see Part IVSwedenUpdate spring 2014The Swedish print book market had a flat year in 2013, andalso the market share of ebooks not expanding significantly,as digital still represents only some 1% of marketshare which is largely dominated by the biggest publishinggroups, Bonnierförlagen, and Norstedts.At an estimated 30%, online retail for books accounts fora significant share in a vast country with s relatively spreadout population, and is owned by the two leading domesticbook chains, Adlibris (of the Bonniers group) and Bokus(which runs also the popular ebook platform dito.Amazon has still no local presence in Scandinavia, yet isrumored to set up an online shop in 2014.Sweden: Developments until 2013When it comes to books, Sweden has a strong reputationof differing from what observers expect to see in a highlyindustrialized and technologically advanced market and,at the same time, providing a model for a balanced societyfounded on civic and democratic values and a social welfarestate. Swedish—and Nordic—literature becameworld famous and staggeringly successful due to serialmurder novels and conspiracies by the rich, with outcastssuch as young hackers or grumpy old police officers beingthe sole and last resort of law and order. As world-classindustrial brands struggle for survival (Nokia) or are passedon to Chinese ownership, one Swedish publishing house(Bonnier) set out to become Germany’s third-largest publisher,and has so far successfully imposed its online platformson the domestic market with a strong and almostparamount presence.Sweden does not yet have an Amazon or Kindle shop. Despitebeing a nation of early adopters in new digital technologies—textmessages (SMS), Skype, and Spotify wereinvented in Scandinavia, and Sweden has been an earlymarket for those innovations—ebooks are still in their veryThe Global eBook Report 42