German Book Publishers Cool To E-Book Market

Now that the Kindle is being actively marketed in many countries outside the US, reader rsmiller510 sends in his piece up on DaniWeb about the skepticism in Germany about the whole e-book phenomenon. A major difference from the US book market is that in Germany, book prices are regulated in an effort to protect authors, publishers, and small booksellers. As a result, publishers don't issue electronic versions of their books until the paperback edition comes out, up to 2 years after the hardcover — and then they sell the e-book for the same price as the lowest-cost paperback. An article on e-books in Spiegel.de notes a survey taken recently for the Frankfurt Book Fair, which found that "only one in 12 Germans has a clear idea about what an e-book is, and seven out of 10 of them would prefer a printed version over a digital one." 65,000 e-books were sold in Germany in the first 6 months of 2009, vs. almost ten times that number bought per week in the US, in what is still a small niche of the overall book business.

Comments

Is America really all that different?

[93 Escort Wagon]

... only one in 12 Germans has a clear idea about what an e-book is, and seven out of 10 of them would prefer a printed version over a digital one.

Maybe a higher percentage of Americans than Germans know what an ebook is - maybe not. But my gut tells me that we probably match up similarly in terms of preferring a printed book over a digital book, since I hear that all the time (even from a fair number of techies).

I have no doubt the tech will continue to evolve until someone gets it right, and finally makes digital more convenient than paper. It's not there yet, except for the small number of people that use multiple books at the same time (e.g. students) - and even in those cases, DRM, non-availability of many titles, and other issues deleteriously affect their ebook experience.

Funeral eulogy for the german book marker

[mseeger]

Hi,

since i am german and an ebook user for several years (iRexx Iliad), i would like to comment on that:

• It is very hard to purchase german ebooks. Only a small percantage of all books is actually offered as an ebook. If they are published at all, the ebook version comes months or even years later.
• The german book market is heavily regulated and publishers/authors are mostly happy with the status quo. The ebook is seen as "a disturbance of the force" and therefor not appreciated. Publishers already try to get lawmakers to extend the regulation to ebooks as well.
• Germanys "Intelligenzija" (from which a lot of authors are recruited) is notorical hostile towards technology.
• The primary clients for ebooks are geeks and technology friendly young adults. Those can read books in english. Since those are even a lot of cheaper, germanys ebook shoppers buy beyond the border (e.g. i have 200 ebooks from Baen.
• The trend of germans reading "english" literature is already demonstrated by Amazon Germany having an own category "English books". Patrick Rothfuss fulminant debut with "Name of the wind" costs 25 Euro as a german book or 7 Euro as an english one (both including S&H).
• The early adopters of technology typically read a large share of Science Fiction & Fantasy... not a strength of german authors (few exceptions). SF&F is still frowned at, not considered to be "real literature" here. This also drives readers into exile.

Like the music industry the publishers are currently comitting sucide due to the fear of death. By trying to preserve the status quo, they are scaring away a big part of their future customers. Ebooks are only a symptom here.

I have purchased and read about 1.000+ books during the last 25 years. Due to a still progressing carreer, my budget is rising. But i am less and less inclined to spend it on the local market.

Sincerely yours, Martin

Re:I don't think it's that much different, here

[Fizzol]

The funny thing is publishers complained for years about the physical cost of books, and used it as a base for low writer royalties. Once that was taken out the equation by ebooks, then suddenly it's all about the cost of editing and layout and so on. Someone along the line wasn't telling the truth, and I'm not inclined to start believing the publishers now.

Re:I don't think it's that much different, here

[ScrewMaster]

The funny thing is publishers complained for years about the physical cost of books, and used it as a base for low writer royalties.

Hollywood accounting. If you believe the studio execs, no movie actually makes any money.