Is our culture threatened by Google and by the Open Access movement for freely accessible science publications? Are Google’s library scanning programs and the so called “Google settlement” with the US Author’s Guild a menace against the freedom of expression in Germany?
Such is the opinion expressed by the “Heidelberg Appell” made public by Roland Reuss in March 2009 and since then endorsed by 2600 publishing and literary people throughout Germany, and heavily promoted notably by most of the German mainstream media.
I rather guess that the ensuing debate is more of a - pretty belated - realization for many that things around the book, publishing and the readers are in fact changing dramatically, even if many tried hard to ignore it so far. This resulted in a memorable re-emergence of the old pattern of controversy confronting modernists and traditionalists.
I tried to sort out arguments and perspectives in two lengthy articles in German (initially published by Perlentaucher) and in English (initially published by Publishing Perspectives and documented at my own website as well.
Having the pleasure and the privilege to travel with this group of US non fiction editors to see a number of German publishers in Munich and Frankfurt
Editors from the US on the S. Fischer Frankfurt roof top
- C.H. Beck, C. Hanser, Campus, Suhrkamp, S. Fischer, Random House - the most interesting insight was at how many levels these markets have drifted apart:
- Selling a good monograph to 12.000 readers (a normal target for German scholarly publishers) is just a dream on the US side;
- Having philosophy or sociology titles finding readers outside of universities (and a shelf in a normal book store) again is unseen in the US;
- Using print-on-demand is a very normal routine to produce books in the US, while their German homologues just start to discover this perspective;
- EBooks accounting for 100.000 $ of sales in 2008 is better than average in the US; however such sales not even started in Europe;
- Trying to jump start a book digitisation and eBook platform run by an association is hardly conceivable in the US, but a fact in Germany.
I will tell a few more details after a good night of sleep (or two). And, perhaps even more importantly, will introduce a few of those checking those new ways out.
More pix here
The German book trade magazine buchreport published its yearly ranking of the top 50 German language book retailers (chain stores as well as local chains) emphasizing once again the dynamics of market consolidation.
The 2 leading chain stores, Thalia (a division of perfume retailer Douglas, with book revenues of 801 m Euros) and DBH (the combined Hugendubel and Weltbild groupformed only in 2006, with revenues of 711 m Euros) are way ahead of the rest of the pack. Their closest competitor Mayersche has only 145 m Eros in revenues.
Well, this is not entirely true, as online retailer Amazon released its sales figures for Germany of 1,48 bn $ or roughly 1 bn Euros in revenues in 2007 (it was 1,1 bn in 2006 - or up 31 % with currency exchange effects taking into account). (Figures reported on 3 March 2008 by Franfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - available online on subscription only)
Acknowledging that Amazon sells a lot more than just books and other media, with estimates guessing that all media combined represent ca. 60 % of Amazon’s German sales, this puts Amazon at least at #3 in Germany, and probably as the retail book and media company with the most dynamic prospects of groth.
