The 4th Editech Conference in Milan, held on June 9th, was mostly about the fragmented nature of the European digital market. That was not unexpected – the majority of the audience was Italian, and the Italian e-book market is among the smallest in Europe, small enough to say it is virtually non-existing.

One of the conclusions of the conference was that with the exception of the UK, there is no real e-book market in Europe yet. Market shares fluctuate between countries where the first step has been made – such as Spain (1,7%) and The Netherlands (0,8%) – and countries where there is no e-book market to speak of – such as Germany (<0,5%) and Italy (<0,1%).

Several speakers – myself included – pointed out that it has become increasingly clear that in analysing the global e-book market the European and Anglo-Saxon markets need to be carefully separated. Europe consists of many mainly small markets that lack the volume of readers and the level of investment needed to build the platforms, apps, sites and whatnot that are now being developed by US and UK publishers to connect with their readers.

Digital is expensive. For publishers in small markets as The Netherlands and Italy, there is a need for a more cooperative model of business to get the necessary investments of the grounds. This is not the way publishing traditionally works in these territories. So in order to reach the necessary scale, publishers need to change the way they do business.

This was what Kobo’s Michael Tamlyn referred to as the very clear cultural difference in the way the US and the EU do business. European publishers have traditionally worked from a basis of trust: building very personal relationships where both parties can profit. US publishers on the other hand, have always worked much more form a strictly business point of view – in Tamblyn’s words, a more legal approach to things, what led him to describe the difference in approach as one of trust versus contract.

Looking at the way the US market developed, it is clear that publishers were able to adapt to the changing face of digital publishing extremely fast, making a lot of content available in a very short time frame. It is also clear that European publishers are unable to do this. Looking at the Dutch market, it is the lack of content that is one of the main road blocks to a healthy e-book market.

Scale combined with a more conservative approach to business goes a long way in explaining this. But the cultural differences within the EU are at least as big as the one between the US and the EU. So what is needed now is more attention to the way these differences actually shape the e-book market for each and every country, so that publishers may better understand how to grow this market more effectively.

One of the big issues is that most European publishers are not working on a global scale, nor are they interested in it. With the exception of Spanish and maybe French, none of the European languages have a very big reach outside of the country of origin. Where English language books can reach people with a different first language means that e-market for US and UK publishers is virtually limitless. This also poses a threat that is often overlooked: English language books competing directly with a country’s original language and actually making English the reading language of choice in many countries.

In my country, this is already apparent, as it is in Germany after the launch of the Kindle there. This may well be one of the reasons the French government decided to impose a fixed price on e-books. Because language is culture. European publishers would do well to remember that this makes it all the more pressing to get more original digital content on the market.

What was very clear though listening to the talk in Milan that most who were present felt that there was a clear need for facts, not more predictions. More examples from the field, more data, more analysis. We need to see more European publishers sharing their experiences at international conferences. Editech was a good indication how real the need is.

This is complicated matter, as may be apparent from this slightly rambling account. It’s clear we need more and better data of the European market to gain a deeper insight. Sadly, in most countries, this data is lacking. the Editech conference - for me at least - was a good way to collect data and share experiences and I am now hungry for more.