The Global Ebook Market: Developments, Trends, Strategies

Michael Bhaskar, Profile Books, 04.2013

First, some background...

And some context

But ebooks ≠ disruption

UK Publishing

Headline figures

• Total sales: £3.2bn• Digital sales: £243m in

11/12 and growing• Home physical sales:

£1.7bn (down 5%)• Export physical sales:

£1.2bn (down 3%)• Receipts from rights and

coeditions: £137m

Digital specific

• Second to the US in terms of adoption of ereaders

• For trade publishers ebook revenue accounts for circa 15% of the total – and still growing, albeit more slowly than last year

• The Amazon Kindle system is absolutely dominant – probably has 85-90% of the market

Key features

• Fiction is the dominant format for ebook sales• Many fiction titles published in the UK sell more as

ebook than print book; BUT what sells in ebook, sells in print

• Non-fiction remains at around the 10% market• Children’s books are unpredictable • Tablets are overtaking ereaders• December, January, February biggest months but

summer holiday reading always big• Devices are cheap (£60-100), popular for presents

The most important thing has been building robust digital workflows: process, conversion, metadata, distribution, team

Europe

• Germany most digitally reading nation in Continental Europe – but still under 5%

• France, Italy and Spain also have localised Kindle stores but growth is slow (still only 2% of total turnover is digital)

• Much of Europe has fixed book prices which holds back ereading; cultural resistance

• Some attempts at local ebookstores e.g. FNAC• Spanish and German pubs have grouped together

Australia

• High prices, difficulties of distribution mean big ebook traction in Australia

• Good balance between Kindle, iBooks and Kobo

USA

• By far the largest digital market – multibillion dollar ebook industry

• For many publishers accounts for 25% of total turnover: including the Big Six

• Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook (bricks and mortar strategy) biggest players

• Similar download profile to UK • Ready finance and investment• Strong ecosystem of publishing, technology and

investment creates virtuous circle

Trend 1: Platform dominance

Trend 2: Pricing changes

Agency

Retail

Trend 3: Apps that Work

INNOVATIONWe have to rethink everything. The product, the business model the marketing the process

Trend 4: Paracontent

“Spreadable media is media which travels across media platforms at least in part because the people take it in their own hands and share it with their social networks.”

Henry Jenkins

Marketing becomes content

Content becomes marketing

Trend 5. DRM and licencing

Lots of questions – about copyright, piracy, disintermediation and the ability to create value in new contexts Open access – a new model for publishing?

WHAT IS CHANGING?

Content is changing. Producers are changing. Markets are changing. Marketing is changing. Business is changing. Readers are changing.

But this

Not this

But with some of these on the way...

Michael Bhaskar

michael.bhaskar@profilebooks.com

Digital Publishing Director

@ajaxlogos