We won’t know the full story for Storytel 2018 until April, but the Q4 results are out and include an overview of the year, and a clear picture is emerging of consistent and sustainable growth, driven by digital. As I’ll explore in a follow-up report on the Swedish book market, what we are seeing in Read More …
We’re told so many times that books are dead, publishing is doomed and authors need to find new career paths, that it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of the reality. That books and reading are more popular than ever. It’s just that the traditional sales channels and publishing superstar names are competing in an increasingly Read More …
There’s not much to go on here, but also no real surprise. Amazon claimed 50% of online book sales in France in 2018, according to a report by Kantor World Panel. According to the report Amazon was by far the largest online retailer in the country, and its biggest showing was in the books sector, Read More …
Cupido is a Norwegian site dedicated to all things sensual, and now that includes podcasts. This month Cupido is launching what apparently translates as Cupido Handsfree – a great double-entendre if accurate. To mark the event Cupido tells us that 4,500 of Storytel’s 100,000 titles are categorized as “sensual”, referencing a report in the left-wing Norwegian Read More …
India’s Kolkata International Book Fair wound up earlier this week and the numbers are in: 2.3 million visitors spent 230 million rupees (US$ 3.2 million) on books in twelve days. Given the price of books in India the volume must have been huge. This just weeks after 900,000 turned out to the New Delhi World Book Read More …
When StreetLib launched The New Publishing Standard in September 2017 we made clear the function of the journal was to stimulate debate about the much-neglected global book markets. It was not a StreetLib promotional tool, and not a vehicle to advocate digital at the expense of traditional formats. But occasionally StreetLib becomes part of the Read More …
Europe’s biggest consumer-facing book fair will be taking place in the El Retiro park in Madrid from May 31 through June 16. Anyone wanting to participate as an exhibitor will need to complete registration by noon on 11 February. The Dominican Republic will be guest of honour at the 78th Madrid Book Fair. In 2018 the Read More …
Turkey’s Aras Publishing this week received the coveted Publishing House of the Year Award from Dünya Books Magazine for its role as a window to Armenian literature. Explains Massispost, Aras Publishing was established in 1993 in Istanbul. It adopted a publishing policy which made it called “the window to Armenian literature” soon. With its books Read More …
With a population close to 20 million Romania is by no means one of Europe’s smallest book markets, but often is overlooked by publishers outside the country looking to maximise reach and revenues. Yet Romania has a vibrant online book sector, with Libris leading the online print stores and Elefant the dominant ebook player in Read More …
Adult graphic novels, youth comics, comics for kids, manga… It seems the French couldn’t get enough of the stuff in 2018, doubling sales from independent bookstores. By comparison the other sectors rose just 0.6%. The numbers come from a report by the L’Observatoire de la Librairie commissioned to mark the launch of the Festival International Read More …
With the announcement in December that Amazon-owned Audible was sponsoring the prestigious Sunday Times Short Story Award came the prospect that the winners would not just earn some extra cash but would have their entries published as an audiobook that would reach a still wider audience. Which all sounds great. The Sunday Times Short Story Read More …
Sweden’s banking and finance company Avanza has long offered financial advice via podcasts, so it was only natural that, when Storytel cast its eye over the Swedish audio landscape for untapped niches it should alight on the private finance sector. Storytel takes the next step in its commitment to business literature by launching a unique Read More …
Podcasts are a great way of reaching consumers with shortform audio, without the full expense that comes with producing an audiobook, and in the US, reports Poland’s Weekend Gazeta, podcasts have been elevated to an art form. In the United States…the releases of subsequent seasons of iconic productions are an event no less than the Read More …
A new report, Art in Numbers, from the Norwegian Cultural Council observes 88% of fiction and 75% of non-fiction is consumed in print via Norway’s high street stores, in stark contrast to neighbouring Sweden where streamed audiobooks and ebooks are the trend. Trine Stensen, CEO of the Norwegian Bookstores Association, explained, That the physical bookstore Read More …
Storytel is no stranger to partnering with telcos to deliver audiobooks to wider audiences. Way back in 2016 Storytel partnered with Denmark’s Telia, for example. And almost a year ago to the day Storytel partnered with T-Mobile Poland. Sweden’s Storytel partners with Poland’s T-Mobile to deliver audiobooks Now comes news Storytel Turkey has partnered with Read More …
The official press release doesn’t tell us much, but Storytel Bulgaria is now officially Storytel’s 15th market, fifteen months after Storytel acquired the Bulgarian audiobook firm D&D Factory. No numbers for Bulgarian content, but what there is will be available alongside Storytel’s 50,000 English-language titles. UPDATE: Storytel Bulgaria launches with 300 titles in Bulgarian. Stefan Read More …
Although we don’t have the date yet, it’s now official that Storytel will be launching in Bulgaria this year, and as there’s only this month to go it now seems certain Storytel Bulgaria will formally be announced in the Bulgarian capital at the Sofia Literary Festival (11-16 December), running in tandem with the Sofia International Read More …
The 20th edition of Russia’s Non-Fiction Book Fair kicks off today for a five day run in the Central House of Artists in the capital, Moscow. Italy is the guest of honour at the event, one of twenty participating countries this year. Those will be Belgium, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Hungary, Israel, India, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Read More …
The acquisition, subject to regulatory authority approval, of Denmark’s largest online bookstore Saxo by minority stake-holder JP/Politikens Hus has repercussions beyond the Danish border. If the translation is accurate, Saxo’s Jørgen Balle Olesen said in a press release, I hand over the keys to JP / Politikens Hus with a mixture of pride and vodka. Fortunately, Read More …
Amazon is also a major customer – and many of those books in the Amazon packaging are coming to you straight from Gardners. That will be news to many indie authors reading this, as will the news that Gardners handles ebooks. Head over to ALLi for the tour. At which point just to Read More …
