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Publishing Perspectives has an overview article on the state of Spain’s ebook market:

Spain’s e-book market got off to a slow start as consumers bemoaned the limited catalog available, the complexity of purchasing e-books, and the higher tax levied on them than on print editions — 18% compared with 4%. The panorama has changed radically in a matter of weeks, however, after a volley of e-reader launches in the past month. For many, the biggest news was Amazon.es opening its Kindle bookstore on Friday, with 22,000 Spanish-language titles, as well as books in Catalan, Galician and Basque. Still, the question remains whether or not Spanish e-book buyers will patronize the stores of overseas multinationals or gravitate toward indigenous offerings. After all, in the past month, several of the country’s leading booksellers also got into the game.

(Via Publishing Perspectives.)

1 COMMENT

  1. Spain is different! Low levels overall of readership versus all other major Western European countries along with a great propensity for piracy, e.g. music and videos. Spaniards (and both my parents were Spanish) do not tend to respect IP if it is available digitally and are very price sensitive – even more so now they have gone from book to bust. Customer service is a secondary issue. Local eReaders have been available for at least 2 years and it has been a struggle to get them into leading retailers (I know one of the leading manufacturers/suppliers). Until virtually forced by the govt, publishers had no interest in digitalising their catalogues. It took Patricia Aranabacia of Barnes & Noble to develop a spanish language ebook site for the US market. Spain does have a history of being a late adopter and when it does it can leap frog established players – however in book publishing and retailing I fear it is too late!

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