Apple’s iBookstore was open for business), and the numberof available ebook titles in Slovene has doubled. Nevertheless,ebook sales still represented less than 1% of theoverall market, and only Mladinska knjiga and Studentskazalozba are systematically publishing their new releases asebooks, together with print.The e-bestselling authors of 2012 and 2013 were JonasJonnason and Sylvia Day, and the Slovene publisher of E.L.James’ Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy decided against anebook version of this title. Two heavy bestsellers of 2013,Dan Brown’s Inferno and Sylvia Day’s Entwined with Youwere published simultaneously in ebook and print formats.It can be assumed that, concerning reading devices,tablets and smartphones prevail.Ebooks are subject to the normal 22 percent VAT, whileprinted books benefit from a reduced rate of 8.5 percent.A legal deposit applies to all Slovene ebooks.SloveniaKey Indicators Values Sources,commentsBook market size (p+e, atconsumer prices)Titles published per year(new and successiveeditions)eBook titles (availablefrom publishers)Lithuania€80 million in 2012 Estimates by Mladinskapublishers5,621 (from 6,139 in2010, of whicharound 3,500 aretrade titles)Estimates by Mladinskapublishers1000 Estimates by Studentskazalozba and MladinskapublishersThe Lithuanian book market was hit hard by the economiccrisis in 2009 and 2010, with a significant recovery startingin 2011, as 3,280 new titles were published (up 22.3 percentfrom 2010), and 3,450 new titles were estimated for2012.Some 1,000 commercial ebook titles had been released bymid-2013. eBooks are subject to the normal VAT of 21 percent(compared to a reduced rate of 9 percent for printedbooks). So far, a legal deposit is only partially applied toebooks, and ebooks have not been dealt with in nationalcopyright legislation.Several publishers, including Alma littera, Obuolys, Šviesa,TEV, and Baltos lankos, have started to launch ebook editionsof their titles alongside the print editions, with EPUBbeing the most popular format, and most ebooks are protectedby hard DRM. Most ebooks are distributed by Skaitykle,a platform that also sells reading devices. Otherebook distributors include Knygos and 100knygu. Morerecently, publishers have started to distribute their ebooksvia global platforms, notably Apple, Amazon, and Kobo.PCs and laptop computers are frequently used for readingebooks, as dedicated ereaders are costly for Lithuanianconsumers.It is estimated that sales of ebooks will reach 1% of themarket by the end of 2013. The biggest e-bestseller of 2013was the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. It is assumed that,among reading devices, tablets and smartphones prevail.Piracy is an issue of increasing concern, with a number ofwebsites dedicated to delivering Lithuanin books, oftenscanned from print, notably El-knygos.eu, Elknygos.lt, andNemokamospdfknygos (Aida Dubkevičiute, director of theLithuanian Publishers Association).BulgariaIn 2012, the Bulgarian print book market grew by some 8percent, with an annual inflation of 4 percent, so the recentnet growth was 4 percent.In Bulgaria, some 1,500 ebook titles are available, of whichtwo-thirds are from Bulgarian authors and the rest fromtranslations. The market share of ebooks is lower than 1%,maybe about 0.2%. English-language titles are mostly orderedby individuals from Amazon, but no detailed informationis available.The domestic market is largely dominated by local—asopposed to international—publishing houses, a majorityof which have started to release ebook editions of newtitles, notably Ciela, Colibri, Trud, Hermes, Era, Enthusiast,and Gurme.The leading distributors are Ciela, Vivabooks, Vivacom,Helikon, Bgkniga, Mtel, Biblio, and Ebooks, all using AdobeContent Server DRM, which is reportedly causing problemson certain smartphones. Preferred reading devices arededicated ereaders, laptop computers, and tablets.Piracy is a serious problem on the digital front, but not forprinted books. Books are often scanned and illegally distributedvia the Internet, with distribution sites generatingincome from advertisements. Blocking of websites is notallowed.52 The Global eBook Report
Source: Vesselin Todorov, Ciela Norma, Sofia, Bulgaria.HungaryThe Hungarian book market has been nominally flat overthe past several years, but when including inflation, a declineof 5 to 6 percent per year is revealed.Currently, some 5,000 to 6,000 titles are available asebooks, representing a market share of around a percentoverall and around 1 percent for fiction. The overall leadingtrade publishers, notably Ulpius-ház, Magvető, and Kossuth,have been most active in the digital segment, providingthe Mobi, EPUB, and PDF formats, usually with socialDRM. The strongest distributors and retailers for ebooksare Ekonyv.hu, Multimediaplaza.com, and Polc.hu, asidefrom direct purchases by consumers from the big globalplatforms (notably Amazon and Apple).An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 pirated —that is, mostlyillegally scanned— books are on offer, but stakeholderssee their impact no longer increasing as legal versions becomeavailable.The biggest e-bestseller in the first half of 2013 were theFifty Shades of Grey trilogy and three books by Hungarianauthors.The VAT on ebooks is 27%, one of the highest across Europe,while the VAT on printed books is only 5%. The preferredprotection is watermarking, and the preferred formatsEPUB and Mobi.Source: Geza Morcsanyi, Magvető, Budapest, Hungary,and Péter Inkei, Budapest Observatory.RomaniaThe Romanian book market saw a major downturn around2008–2009, and since then, it has remained flat. Kiosk (orpartwork) editions have also decreased in volume recently.An ebook segment only started to emerge in 2012, and for2013, it is estimated that the market share will be above1%. Approximately 65% of newly published fiction booksare converted to eformat and put on sale as ebooks. Accordingto industry estimates, only 10 to 12 trade publishinghouses have started to release ebooks, including Polirom,Humanitas, and Litera. Currently, some 1,500 to1,800 titles are available in digital format, mostly in EPUB.The leading ebook distributor is Elefant.Besides local authors, Tracy Chevalier and Haruki Murakamiwere e-bestsellers in the first half of 2013. As in most ofthe other CEE countries, the VAT on ebooks is much higherthan the VAT on printed books (24% vs. 9%).No Kindle editions are produced, as Romanian is currentlynot among the officially supported languages.Source: Siviu Lupescu, Polirom, Iasi, Romania.SerbiaThe Serbian book market has an estimated retail value of€50 to €70 million (excluding textbooks).No local distribution platform for ebooks exists so far, asthe cost of development would exceed the possible income.For the Apple platform, some local subcontractorsoperate and normally add a markup of 30 percent on theretail price of a work, in addition to Apple’s 40 percent fee,leaving a mere 30 percent for the originators of the work.Amazon’s direct publishing services are not available inSerbia, and the Serbian alphabet (either in Cyrillic or inLatin) is not actively supported for the generation ofebooks.Piracy is endemic, with illegal downloads of movies, music,and now ebooks being routine for many consumers. As aresult, content owners (namely publishers but also authorsand translators) are very reluctant to expose their contentto piracy in digital formats.Source: Aleksandar Drakulic, Knjizara, Belgrade.Conclusions on Central and Eastern EuropeIn this current, early stage, small markets overall seem tolag behind in their domestic production of ebooks, as theemerging new niche is challenged by a number of factors:required investments are difficult to earn back in small orat best flat local markets with small language communities.Some local languages have the additional disadvantageof so far not being supported by global ebook platformsfor producing ebooks—though in some cases, popularWeb browsers are available in local languages, whichopens a cultural and practical gap between the usage ofthe local language against the globalization of English. Thestrongest—and often best educated and fairly affluent—readers are also those in a position to read in English andmake direct purchases, particularly from the shops offeredby Amazon and Apple, as well as Kobo and Google, allowingthose global players to expand their market shareThe Global eBook Report 53
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ContentsAbout the Global eBook Repo
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Receptiveness for foreign (English)
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Of those who admitted to downloadin
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1,200 titles (see this blogpost by
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The AcceleratedTransformation of th
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AcknowledgmentsThis report has been
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Mandarin, she has specialized in re