Mattias Boström

On Tuesday, October 20th is Swedish Publishers' Association, a seminar for its members under the heading "E-book - easy to make, difficult to sell." The panel consists of journalist Sus Andersson, Magnus Nytell as the base for e-books within Bonnier and myself who are eboksansvarig on Piratförlaget. Moderator: Pelle Thörnberg.

The seminar will last three hours, so there is plenty of time for discussion. On site in the audience are among other representatives of eboksföretaget Elib and I hope that the result is that they are currently publishing people will go home with a freshly updated insight into how the Swedish eboksmarknaden looks right now. Then everything can be changed already in a week is a different matter. It is simply such a market, and such a situation.

I will certainly talk about many things during the seminar, but here are at least a first draft of my opening statement. For those who have read my previous progress report on eboksmarknaden feel mostly back, but some conclusions are new.

Opening address by Mattias Boström, eboksseminarium October 20, 2009

Future Swedish eboksmarknaden rests on four cornerstones. All of these are required in order for us at all to get any eboksmarknad to talk about. If we do not fix them all so that the building will be very unstable.

The first pillar is offered. The current situation is about 2 000 Swedish titles available through Elib, spread across a variety of genres. Should we create a market of satisfied customers who come back and always find something they want to read, so we must maintain the proliferation of genres and cross the border 8 000-10 000 Swedish titles. In a year we'll probably be up at 4 000-5 000 titles, so we are on track. But in creating incentives for the Swedish publishers to digitize their titles, both news and backlist. We must show that this is good business - and this is a great challenge for us publishers who made the most of eboksmarknaden. We are simply depends on many other publishing companies is helping to make the offer attractive to the consumer.

The second pillar is the price. During the next two years will be about eboksmarknaden a continuous experimentation. It is now we can take the opportunity to experiment with pricing to see what level that suits us and the customers best. It is under construction which customers are forgiving if we try to cut a few bucks and then increases again. We are still a few years after development in the U.S. and where the price has now been concreted over and is difficult to upset. But here we still have the option. My own belief is that a low ebokspris creates impulse purchases, especially when we start to get a more widespread sales through such iPhone or läsplattor with built-in download via mobile networks. I would like to see a retail price of around a hundred patches for news, and £ 40-50 for the backlist. But the immediate future to determine what we end up at.

The third pillar is the hardware. Not only läsplattor, but is also an example the iPhone. Here we see a slight upturn, compared with only a few months ago. Several läsplattemärken are entering the Swedish market, even Kindle will be able to be used in Sweden. The price of the plates are still too high and the interest of traders seem to have pretty lukewarm. It is not enough läsplattor to buy online - most customers are not satisfied until they are actually holding a läsplatta and realize that the text on the screen is extremely readable and the unit is at all attractive and easy to use. I would like to have the physical bookstores that link, if only to naturally achieve high readers. But then we must create opportunities for physical bookshops to convey the e-books as well - why else would they sell a device that leads upcoming sales away from their point?

The fourth and final pillar is readily available opportunities. It should never be complicated to buy an eBook. If we are to have real spin on eboksmarknaden we must address ourselves to the great readers, not the technology saved. Therefore, all matters relating to technology and formats banned substances. For those who want to read an eBook on the iPhone will not this be a problem, but it will be a nut to crack in terms läsplattor and we have to work really hard to simplify the purchase and download. Therefore, we also need better eboksbutiker than today - a challenge for both nätbokhandlarna as the physical bookstores. And not least for other operators that might turn upside down on the retail level for e-books.

These are the four pillars of whatsoever launch a eboksmarknad: supply, price, hardware and accessibility. Parallel to this, there is a wide range of other pieces that must fall into place, but without the four pillars, we will not get anywhere.

Why should we invest in e-books? Well, of course, because we believe it will be a good deal harder than that, it is not. At least it will be a better deal than not bet on it and let other players completely determine the evolution. You can book as engaging in eboksmarknaden with a positive attitude or because they simply had no choice. For some publishers, it might not be necessary for some time. But that e-books will start to pick market share in the total book market in the coming years is inevitable.

Facebook