All the indications are Amazon Sweden will launch next month, and print books will be part of it. Digital? No suggestion yet that a Kindle Sweden store is imminent. If that did happen it would be the first new Kindle store in over 5 years.
It’s no longer a question of if but when Amazon Sweden becomes a reality, and a launch in time for Black Friday seems to be favourite right now as suppliers deliver their products to Amazon warehouses.
Specifically we have news that 23,000 books (copies, not titles) have been sent to the Amazon warehouse at Eskilstuna, after the logistics firm Förlagssystem received its first order from Amazon. In total, the orders are for 23,000 books, reports Svensk Bokhandel, adding that Bookmark and Bonnierförlagen are also among the publishers that have received orders from Amazon, but the total quantity is unknown.
That in turn invites speculation that for the immediate future Amazon is talking to just a few of the biggest publishers and will pad out the Books catalogue with content supplied by distributors like Förlagssystem rather than bother dealing with individual smaller publishers.
Over at Boktugg Sölve Dahlgren speculates that the launch will be in time for the “Reading holiday” Läslovet or Black Friday. For my part I cannot imagine books being so central to Amazon Sweden that the former will dictate the timetable, but a launch in advance of Black Friday and the run up to Christmas would make sense across the board.
The Amazon Sweden domain is still redirecting to Amazon Germany at this time Amazon, but Boktugg reports that,
translation work is in full swing and when it comes to books, they already have Swedish product texts on all titles through Bokinfo.
We know Amazon has been courting Swedish audiobook publishers for Audible, although there’s no suggestion a dedicated Audible Sweden launch is imminent. Boktugg makes a passing reference to Amazon dealing with BookBeat, the digital arm of Bonnier. But as yet there is no firm indication that Amazon SE might launch with a Kindle SE store.
