Contents

Forces Shaping the eBookMarkets: Key Drivers andDebatesThe evolution of ebook markets is shaped bycomplex forces, some local, some global, asshown in the introduction (see Part II).In addition, publishers -but also authors, as wellas the reading public, the consumers- shape theebook markets through various choices and strategies.Several key drivers, and debates governing these choicesare framing what, in fact, works and what doesn’t.• Ebook bestsellers are not necessarily the same as inprint but allow a better understanding of the dynamicsof ebooks as a new market segment, and not justas an additional format that complements printededitions.• Pricing strategies differ significantly between countriesand highlight how publishers assess the marketpotential of ebooks - and how their new competitorschallenge their mostly conservative practices.• Many authors opt to self-publish their books as an alternativeto the traditional value chain, and find suchservices offered by a rapidly expanding field of localand global self-publishing platforms and communities,some even -again- proposed by publishing companies.• Readers do not always choose to download theirebooks from legal sources, so piracy must be understood,aside from the involved legal issues, as a reflectionof the shifting behaviors of consumers.• In addition, in more and more countries, reading marketsdevelop a bilingual segment, as growing numbersof readers read both in their mothertongue andin English, which introduces both new opportunitiesand real challenges to local publishers and retailers.• Regulatory frameworks, including the debate onadaptations of copyright law, define an importantcontext for ebooks.Each of these sets of parameters and combinations thereofwill not only affect each market’s ebook evolution but alsoframe the interplay of domestic and global factors as theyencourage either globalizing or more differentiatingforces.The aim of this chapter, though, is not to portray each ofthese factors in every detail for every single market but,rather, to develop an analytical framework to understandthe driving forces, the resulting patterns, and the resultingimpact of these forces as they are currently reshaping thebusiness of publishing and the culture of authorship andreading.The Global eBook Report 89