“Collaboration among stakeholders—governments, libraries, and publishers—is crucial to fostering e-reading and adapting to the digital era.”
One of the common faux narratives in the publishing world is that because ebooks don’t sell in huge numbers in some countries, ebooks are therefore unpopular.
But as we are seeing across numerous “emerging markets”, what is popular is often a simple case of what is available.
As more and more books are made available in multiple digital formats, so interest in buying books in these formats grows.
Knowledge Rights 21 summarises a recent event looking at ebooks in Greece:
“Preliminary findings, presented by Nikos Panayotopoulos, Giorgos Glossiotis and Michalis Kalamaras revealed significant regional inequalities in e-book access and low adoption rates. Factors such as educational background, digital skills, and cultural attitudes towards reading were identified as key influences on e-book usage.
A highlight of the session was the NLG’s Electronic Reading Room, which has successfully created a model for promoting e-reading through extensive e-resources. However, the presenters emphasised the need for Greek libraries to rethink their roles and services to adapt to the digital age.”
Those of us in the US and UK have likely long-forgotten the early days of ebooks, but “digital skills, and cultural attitudes towards reading” were key factors in holding back ebook adoption, despite the relatively easy access to ebooks via the Kindle store (USA 2007, UK 2010).
In countries like Greece, that never had the luxury of Amazon’s interest, it’s no surprise that ebook engagement has been tortuously slow.
But countries like these also have an advantage the early-adopter markets never had: audiobooks are fast-popularising the notion of digital books, and that is a tide that will lift all boats.
For countries like Greece, where publisher reluctance to digitise is still an issue, I would suggest focus on the “real” scale of the western ebook markets beyond the selective figures routinely reported by the western trade press, that leaves a vast tract of the ebook sales market in the shadows.
