Publishing Perspectives has an interesting article on the fragmented e-book situation in France.
To English-speaking e-book fans, of course, fragmentation is nothing new; there has not been a single cohesive format for e-books since they first gained popularity back in the 1990s. In France, a similar situation has arisen: each publisher is releasing books on its own distribution platform.
A report commissioned by France’s Culture Minister proposes that a single platform be created for the distribution of e-books. However, French publishers reacted to this about as well as you might expect Apple, Amazon, and Google would respond to the notion that they should post all their books together on “iAmaGoo”.
The publishers suggest, instead, a “hub” whereby retailers would be able to sell e-books from any given platform via one access point. Because French publishers consider control of their file systems to be very important, this may be as close as France’s government is going to get.
I find it interesting how much some things are universal. We have a confusing “Tower of E-Babel” problem over here, especially with regard to the third-party e-book readers whose manufacturers do not run their own e-book stores. But it appears France has its own “Eiffel Tower of E-Babel,” though in that case it seems to cause more trouble for retailers than for consumers.
And both countries seem to have about the same likelihood of resolving it any time soon.
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