Among the digital trends at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year: Startups selling ebooks, self-publishing developments, and an emphasis on mobile phones as the ebook revolution goes global.
Amazon is expanding the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which allows Kindle-owning Prime members to borrow one ebook for free each month, to the United Kingdom, Germany and France. The move comes at a time when Amazon is heavily promoting its self-publishing program in Europe.
Rovio, whose “Angry Birds” app has been downloaded over 1 billion times, announced its first book app, a $0.99 iPad cookbook called “Bad Piggies’ Best Egg Recipes,” at the Frankfurt Book Fair Thursday. “We’re looking for millions of downloads,” CMO Peter Vesterbacka said.
Ebook pricing and device trends that hold in North American countries don’t necessarily work for less developed market. Executives from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google, France’s FNAC and India’s Indiaplaza discussed similarities and differences between digital reading cultures Wednesday afternoon at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Startup BookShout lets users import their Kindle and Nook books into its iOS, Android and web-based social reading platform. But the function doesn’t work very well yet, and it seems as if it’s only a matter of time before Barnes & Noble or Amazon shuts it down.
E-reading company Kobo has acquired French digital software company Aquafadas in an effort to develop more digital illustrated content like comic books and magazines. Separately, the company announced new partnerships with New Zealand booksellers.
China has a huge publishing industry, with over 367,000 titles published in 2011 — making it a large and lucrative market for foreign publishers who want to sell book rights there. But they may face unique challenges, including an ebook market very different from the one in the West.
New York-based startup Ganxy, which is officially launching today at the Frankfurt Book Fair, gives authors and publishers a straightforward set of tools to let them sell ebooks and control marketing and promotions online.
As North American ebook retailers Barnes & Noble and Kobo expand their presence abroad, they are seeing their businesses change. Representatives from both companies spoke about some lessons learned on Monday at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
