Editorial by Steven Rosato, Event Director, BookExpo America Does a year make a difference? A year makes a big difference or a small difference depending on how you look at it. We didn’t have an iPad to talk about last year, which is a seismic change to the landscape. On the other hand, books are still being bought and sold, …
French Publishers Launch E-book Distribution Platform
By Hannah Johnson The Bookseller reported today that France’s largest publishers will launch a joint e-book distribution platform in mid-June, with full operation of the system expected in September of this year. Publishers involved in the venture include Eden Books (Flammarion, Gallimard, La Martiniere/Le Seuil), Eplateforme (Editis, Média Participations, Michelin) and Numilog (Hachette Book Group). Distributor Epagine is also involved. …
Is the EU’s 18% Tax on Spanish E-books Fair?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story discusses the launch of Libranda, Spain’s new e-book distribution platform. Along with the announcement is the news that e-books will be charged at the same tax rate as computer software — 18% — instead of the lower 4% rate that is typically applied by “cultural products,” such as books. The Spanish government wants to …
Introducing Libranda: Spain’s Big Three Finalize Their Push into Ebooks
By Emily Williams The long-awaited e-book platform from Spain’s big three publishers now has a name. At a meeting with booksellers in Madrid on Tuesday, representatives of the new company announced it will be called Libranda, and will offer the biggest selection of e-books in Spanish and Catalán in the world. Libranda will act as a digital distributor with no …
Santillana Launches Interactive eTextbook Platform in Catalonia
By Emily Williams Tuesday at the Seville Book Fair, leading Spanish educational publisher Santillana announced the launch of a new “web-book” model of textbooks. The online textbooks are enhanced with images and links and interactive features, and are designed to display on electronic blackboards and laptops in the classroom. Students will be able to access the web-books online from home …
How to Find New Spanish Books to Publish
By Emily Williams New Spanish Books, a project backed by the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX) and the Spanish Publishers Association (FGEE), has announced a call for new titles to be included in their fall selection of featured titles for translation. A more established version of the German site launched in March, the idea of the UK site is …
Why is Spain So Slow to Launch E-books?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story looks at how Spanish publishers Maeva and Random House Mondadori are approaching the mobile and e-book markets in Spain. While both are making progress in the mobile market, the e-book segment appears stalled in beta. The market for Spanish-language e-books has potential to be huge, as it encompasses both Spain and all of Mexico, Central …
Digital Case Study: The Mobile and E-book Market in Spain
By Emily Williams This is a continuation of our Digital Case Study of Spain. Yesterday we covered publishers’ online marketing strategies. You can read that article here. Spanish-language publishers have taken their time moving into the e-book market, but that is finally changing. Using two companies as examples — small independent publisher Maevea and Random House Mondadori — we take a …
Do Readers Care about Publishers’ Branding?
By Edward Nawotka In today’s lead story we look at the digital marketing strategies of two Spanish publishers, Maeva and Random House Mondadori. In the article, Carmen Ospina, digital manager for RHM, discussed the launch of the publisher’s consumer portal, entitled, Me Gusta Leer [“I Like to Read”]. “We decided that [the publisher] brand really is not important for us,” she …
Digital Case Study: Publishers’ Online Marketing in Spain
By Emily Williams Update: Read part two of our Digital Case Study of Spain Spanish-language publishers have taken their time moving into the e-book market. However several of the more nimble companies have delved into Internet marketing and found it generates not only good will, but real-world results and sales of paper books. Two of those are the small independent …