If you live in Brazil or near Sao Paulo you are in for a treat October 25th. For the first time ever a full one day conference is kicking off and will focus on EPUB 3 and HTML5 production for digital publishers. It has the full support of the IDPF and will help the local market better understand best practices and talk with each other on the future of publishing.
The Brazilian eBook market is undergoing radical growth with 68% of all publishers now offering them. The revenue derived from this endeavor through is rather negligible. eBooks are said to account for only 1% of all book sales through the major publishers and the entire industry is in a state of confusion. Most are unsure of what format to sell their books in, whether or not to include DRM and what sales channels to offer them.
According to research from CBL, 68% of publishers sell digital books, and 59% are still unsure as to the format to be used. Of the total who answered the question, 58.7% use platforms of sales channels and 52.4% use digital distributors. The majority, 70%, selling DRM file, a lock type which does not allow copies to be made.
This conference happening should be checked out, the local market will be advised to learn best practices. After all, Google, Kobo, Amazon and Apple have all setup shop with a population of over 200 million people, there is a untapped market for eBooks.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
