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This study seeks to assess the extent to which die digital book market is structuring independently from the print edition market by comparing the pricing of 559 digital and print French and American bestsellers during 2011. Two pricing methods are distinguished: "homothetic pricing," where the digital pricing is a reflection of the print pricing, and "heterothetic pricing," where the digital price is set according to new rules. The French and American markets do not have the same propensity to overcome the pricing practices in the print book market: While the French market's e-book structure is mirroring that of the print book industry, die American market tends to be more independent. This can be explained by die significant structural, legal, and institutional differences between the publishing industries of both countries. In addition, some factors favor die "heterothetic" pricing method: the number of pages and the type of book influence the degree of differentiation between print and digital prices of the same title [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital publishing is still in its infancy, but it is useful to relate what might be called the prologue to the history of digital publishing in French in Quebec. This article presents the actors who have contributed, and continue to contribute, to the transition from print to digital culture in Quebec. It offers a panoramic view of this transition in the various publishing genres from newspapers and magazines, to journals, books, theses, dictionaries, bibliographical databases, and legal texts. A typology of the actors working in these different genres emerges, comprising publisher, aggregator (general or specialist), distributor, production technician, retailer, and librarian. The builders of Quebec's digital publishing milieu are acknowledged through brief descriptions of their projects and enterprises. Many of them have displayed a notable capacity to engage in the development of new models for the production and diffusion of culture and research. The quality of their products, services, and expertise has been recognized several times over through international partnerships and co-operative ventures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]