(E-)Book Publishing in Spain: The Paradoxes of a Dual Business Model

Abstract

[EN] Electronic publishing has transformed the business model of publishing houses in Spain in such a way that two models currently co-exist. There are, on the one hand, traditional publishers of mostly paper-based volumes, whose business models are based on having large catalogues of titles and large print-runs, though print-runs are increasingly smaller and returns increasingly larger. Intermediary agents operating under this model, for instance booksellers, are subject to ever-greater economic pressures, especially in the current crisis. On the other hand, digital publishing models are on the rise in Spain, at least partly as a result of digital projects by traditional publishers who are either digitalizing their catalogues or who are creating entirely new digital catalogues. However, within the rising digital sector, independent publishers have a significant share of the market. They have launched entirely new collections, use cloud-based business models and use sales and distribution systems fully in tune with a constantly-changing readership that increasingly values social networking and collaborative reading. In a rigorous and thorough study, the specificities of each of these models were studied and the consequences of each model for the future of electronic publishing in Spain were analyzed