Digital books in the developing world

Publishers everywhere are rapidly gaining access to consumers anywhere in the world, offering the possibility of a largely expanded market. But the challenge is that big parts of the world live in a different digital and commercial environment than where the world’s biggest publishers get most of their revenue.

Commissioned by the International Alliance of Independent Publishers, Octavio Kulesz undertook a study of the potential for digital communication in the developing world, including in Latin America, the Arab World, Sub-Saharan Africa, Russia, India and China. His conclusion is that publishers will have to think in different terms: smaller file sizes, less demand for bandwidth and screen size, and, most of all, lower prices, if they are going to tap the revenue potential of the billions of people who want to read on devices and will be doing so, but not in the ways or at the prices that commercial publishers have gotten used to in their own back yards. He will report what he learned and offer advice for publishers who want to capitalize on the emerging opportunities.

Octavio Kulesz
Editorial Teseo

Octavio Kulesz has a degree in Philosophy from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has been a professor in Ancient Philosophy at the same university. In 2000 at the age of 23, Octavio and his mathematician brother, Leopoldo, co-founded the independent project Libros del Zorzal. In 2007, Octavio started a new publishing house, Editorial Teseo, exclusively based on POD and focusing on Academics. From April 2007 to May 2008, Octavio Kulesz has chaired the International Young Publishing Entrepreneur (IYPE) Network.