What do we have to read in digital in Lithuanian language on year 2013 July 1st? International Book Science Conference 2013. Traditional and electronic publishing in a small country: experiences and perspectives. Vilnius, Lithuania, 26–27 September 2013

1. Digital Books in
Lithuanian Language:
is there Anything to
Read?
ARŪNAS GUDINAVIČIUS
VILNIUS UNIVERSITY

2. Current situation
23 min per day for books – we are after Estonia (39
min), Germany (38), Norway (36), Sweden (32), Latvia (28)
and UK (26) in EU.
So, what we have to read in digital?

3. Research questions:

What are main e-book sellers in Lithuania?

What are main e-book publishers in Lithuania?

How many e-books in Lithuanian language available
on sale?

Can I save money if I read digital?

What are most popular e-book formats?

What is the situation with publishing in universities?

Black market: should we afraid of?

4. Four mayor Lithuanian
e-book stores

skaitykle.lt (Jan 2010)

knygute.lt (2011?)

knygos.lt / eknygos.lrytas.lt
(Nov 2012)

pegasas.ekps.lt /
eknygos.delfi.lt (Alma
Littera) (Dec 2012)

5. Number of titles
Unique titles: 1293
(on 1st July 2013)
pegasas.
ekps.lt
578
knygos.lt
665
skaitykle.lt
778
knygute.lt
554

6. Prices


26
Price ranges: (see chart)
Average price: 4,19 EUR
(14,50 Lt)

257
Highest price: 12,11 EUR
(41,89 Lt) Antony Beevor,
Stalingradas. EPUB, Alma
littera, 2012

Free titles: 26 (8 classic)
303
Lowest price: 0,57 EUR (1,98
Lt) Andrew P., Kristen Stewart.
Mergina, pamilusi vampyrą.
EPUB, Media Incognito, 2009

707
0 EUR
>0-3 EUR
>3-6 EUR
> 6 EUR

7. Prices: e-book vs printed
E-book,
internet
bookstore
Shopping
cart of 20
random
selected
titles, EUR
Printed,
internet
bookstore
108,96 €
155,78 €
Printed,
traditional
bookstore
171,97 €

8. Publishing dynamics
6000
5000
4859
4559
4270
4548
4567
4580
4223
3972
4000
3176
3278
61
117
2010
2011
3449
3000
2000
1000
384
0
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
E-books
2007
2008
2009
2012
Printed books
•
Academic publishers not included (mainly with print ready PDF’s)
•
Printed books statistical data from Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

9. Publishers

69 publishers (including 22 as self-publishers)

Average 19 titles per publisher

Top self-publisher is Jonas Mačiukevičius with 13 titles
Publishers with 20 and more titles
ERIDANAS (ONLY ON KNYGUTE.LT)
373
ALMA LITTERA
340
SVAJONIŲ KNYGOS
174
MEDIA INCOGNITO (ONLY ON…
56
LUCEO (ONLY ON SKAITYKLE.LT)
46
EUGRIMAS (ONLY ON SKAITYKLE.LT)
28
KNYGUTE.LT (ONLY ON KNYGUTE.LT)
27
VERSUS AUREUS
25
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400

10. Universities
(~1700 titles)
Universities in e-books market (mostly textbooks, monographs)
KTU / EBOOKS.KTU.LT
704
VGTU / EBOOKS.VGTU.LT
465
VDU / EBOOKS.VDU.LT
288
MRU / EBOOKS.MRUNI.EU
Titles
232
VU / ---
0
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
ebooks.knygininkas.lt sells 952 e-books (VDU and KTU titles)
All these books are in PDF/FLASH based mostly protected format for online
and with limited offline reading options. Not compatible with e-readers.

11. Format

1271 titles available in EPUB (2.0)

469 titles available in PDF (almost all at knygute.lt)

313 titles available in MOBI (only at skaitykle.lt)
MOBI
313
E-book store
EPUB
pegasas.ekps.lt 100 %
PDF
469
EPUB
1271
knygute.lt
99 %
knygos.lt
98 %
skaitykle.lt
98 %

12. Protection
Only 5 books (!) on skaitykle.lt are protected with Adobe DRM
Pirates?

13. Black market
Total e-books titles in Lithuanian language in biggest and oldest
Lithuanian file sharing website:
aprox 5000
Titles by categories (aprox)
5000
Audiobooks (MP3)
400
Digital text books (PDF - scanned, OCRed)
500
Magazines (PDF - scanned, OCRed)
E-books (PDF - scanned, OCRed)
E-books (EPUB - converted from scanned, OCRed PDF)
E-books (EPUB/PDF - from official stores)
1000
3000
50
3

14. Black market or official sellers?
More then 3000 titles in ONE black market “shop”
vs
1293 titles in ALL official stores

15. Piracy level
3 e-books are stolen from ALL official
stores (1293 titles).
E-books piracy level in Lithuania – 0,23 %

16. Conclusions

Four mayor Lithuanian e-book stores was on 1st of July, 2013

About 1300 titles on sale with average 600 e-books in one store

About 1700 titles of textbooks available in main universities

Average e-book price - 4,19 EUR (14,50 Lt)

Main e-books publishers are Alma littera, Eridanas and Svajonių kygos

Almost all e-books available in EPUB format

3 e-books are pirated from official stores and more then 3000 are
published (without copyrights) by readers

Copy protection (DRM) are not popular in Lithuania

If you want to save on books – buy e-book.
But sorry – the choice is miserable.

17. Thank you.
Arūnas Gudinavičius
VILNIUS UNIVERSITY