Read The Global eBook Report: Current Conditions & Future Projections. Update October 2013 for Free Online

e-bookstores has started to emerge, mostly in the form of startups (e.g. Palmiknihy in the Czech Republic ) or as new ventures from established local combined booksellers and publishers (e.g. Zvaizgne in Latvia, Pegasas in Lithuania , and Mladinska knjiga in Slovenia ).
    In addition, some booksellers without publishing activities have built their own ebook platforms (such as Apollo in Estonia ), and in some cases, even telephone companies have launched such experiments (e.g. VIPnet and Hrvatski Telekom in Croatia ). In the Czech and Slovak republics, platforms such as Martinus and Palmiknihy operate across the border in both countries, forming the only cross-border operations in a highly fragmented region.
    Judging from publishers’ responses to a questionnaire for this report, a majority assumes that local platforms are currently local market leaders, as Amazon has not yet entered the CEE market. This might change by 2014, as Amazon has announced plans to establish a regional logistics center in the Czech Republic , and it must be assumed that other global players will follow suit quickly.
    Besides such locally developed e-distribution platforms that were prevalent in the region, Mladinska knjiga in Slovenia has developed its own digital bookstore in a partnership with the American company Impelsys (full disclosure: the author of this chapter has been in charge of this project). Additionally, in Slovenia in September 2013, the ebook library distribution platform Biblos (owned by the local fiction publisher Studentska zalozba ), in cooperation with Slovene public libraries, has started to test the unique business model of offering customers the possibility to either buy an ebook or borrow it for free for two weeks, with both alternatives proposed through the same Web page.
    It must be stressed that, in CEE, there is no real price war between ebook-sellers and print booksellers, as in the majority of cases, ebook retail prices are set by the publishers. Quite obviously, the common vertical integration between publishers, booksellers, and ebook sellers seems to make a strong case for a rather peaceful cohabitation of the analogue and digital side of the business, and the attitude is shared even by independent ebook sellers.
    In a majority of CEE countries, most of publishers discount ebooks by about 30 percent, with Slovenia being the only exception, as publishers have decided to set the prices of ebooks equal to those of paperback editions, the main reason for this being the fact that, due to the higher VAT and higher royalties, the production costs of ebooks more or less equal those of printed books.
    In all CEE countries, the preferred format for local ebook titles is EPUB , and most publishers use hard DRM, but with a growing skepticism as to its value, so watermarking is gaining in popularity.

Slovenia
    In the tiny Slovene publishing market, which is worth an estimated €80 to €100 million at consumer prices, according to the official statistics, more than 6,000 titles are released every year. However, recent research has shown that, out of these 6,000, only 3,500 to 4,500 titles are published for sale on the marketplace, while the rest are reports, directories, and self-published titles for both corporate and private use.
    Slovenians are remarkably strong readers and are used to reading books not only in their native language but also in English and, to a lesser degree, in German. In larger bookstores, English titles — which represent an estimated 15 percent of the Slovenian market — are not in separate foreign language sections but are seamlessly intermingled with domestic titles. Public libraries with more than 12 loans annually per inhabitant add to the ample reading diet of Slovenians.
    In 2013, two ebook distribution platforms, Biblos and e-Emka , appeared. Owned by fiction publisher Studentska zalozba, Biblos started as a library lending platform in cooperation with Slovene public libraries and quickly