eBooks in Italy: The Future of Books Is Still Just an Alternative

The debate over textbook prices brings a long-overlooked possibility back into focus: using digital publishing to make reading more accessible. But this requires compelling prices, fewer obstacles and, above all, an understanding of eBooks as more than digital copies of printed books—an idea that Italy still seems to struggle with.

A digital book to buy at half price, then print out

The proposal reported by Il Post on 2 November offers a response to the cost of textbooks, but also reveals an interesting contradiction: digital publishing is being asked to make books cheaper, provided they can be turned back into paper. According to the newspaper, the draft budget law would make digital, printable copies of school and university textbooks available at half the price of their print editions. The proposal is still before Parliament; it is not yet in force.

Whatever the outcome, the proposal raises a broader question. Why are eBooks still regarded as a supplementary format or a fallback option, rather than an ordinary way to read and buy books?

The issue is not whether screens are better than paper. It is how much room we want to give an alternative that could lower the financial barrier to reading without undermining the work of publishing.

Digital books are available in schools, but often remain unopened

Schools clearly illustrate the gap between availability and actual use. In its preliminary report on school publishing, published in July 2025, the Italian Competition Authority found that mixed-format editions—combining a printed textbook, an eBook and supplementary content—had been adopted in more than 95% of classes. Yet, according to an AIE survey cited by the Authority, only 16% of the digital licences included in those products had been activated during the 2023/2024 school year.

Digital books are therefore purchased alongside print editions, but in the vast majority of cases they never even reach the point of first use.

It would be easy to blame teachers’ resistance or families’ habits. Instead, the Competition Authority identifies a range of obstacles: inadequate technological equipment, insufficient training and restrictions imposed by publishers’ proprietary platforms. It also highlights limitations on downloading, printing, annotation and access periods, which are often restricted to two or three calendar years.

Under these conditions, reluctance is not necessarily a rejection of innovation; it can also be a response to a complicated experience. If accessing different books means managing login details and keeping track of expiry dates, the advantages of digital reading become less obvious. Putting a book on a screen is not enough to make it easier to use.

Italy is lagging behind, but the right data matters

There is a gap between Italy and other European countries. According to Eurostat, in 2025, 9.5% of European Union residents who had used the internet in the previous three months had bought eBooks or audiobooks online during that same period. The figure reached 24.5% in Ireland, 22.5% in Denmark and 21% in Croatia. Italy, by contrast, was among the four countries with a share below 5%, alongside Hungary, Slovenia and Latvia.

This is a meaningful comparison, but it must be understood in terms of what it measures: online purchases of eBooks and audiobooks combined, not the total number of digital readers. It does not, for example, capture all reading of works downloaded for free or already owned. It therefore demonstrates that these purchases are less widespread in Italy, but it does not justify using a single percentage to describe every aspect of digital reading.

National figures also show that the format still accounts for a relatively small share of the market’s value. In its 2026 Report on the State of Publishing in Italy, covering 2025, AIE—the Italian Publishers Association—puts eBook revenue at €84 million within a print and digital trade publishing market worth €1.699 billion. The same source records 33,284 eBooks published during the year. The format is therefore far from absent from publishers’ offerings, but its economic weight remains limited.

An eBook can cost less without being worth less

Discussions about prices often confuse two things: the cost of the medium and the value of the book. A novel still requires writing, editorial selection, editing, translation where necessary and proofreading, even when it is published digitally. File preparation, functionality checks and distribution come on top of that. Assuming that an eBook should be almost free means devaluing the very part of a book that should matter most: the intellectual and editorial work behind it.

It is nevertheless true that a digital-only edition does not require paper, printing, or the handling and storage of physical copies. This creates scope for a more affordable price, rather than an automatic guarantee of savings or a formula that applies to every publication.

This distinction is particularly important in education. The Competition Authority notes that developing platforms, applications and complex educational content has required substantial investment, challenging the simplistic equation between digitisation and lower production costs. An interactive textbook, for example, does not have the same cost structure as a fiction eBook.

The question for publishers, then, is not why does a file cost money? but how much of the format’s economic advantage can be passed on to readers?

Beyond new releases: another route for the backlist

The same reasoning applies to books that are no longer prominently displayed in bookshop windows: novels published a few years ago, specialist non-fiction, collections and works aimed at small but interested audiences.

Digital publishing makes an edition available without having to print and store a physical print run. It does not eliminate the investment involved: recovering a text, correcting it, securing the rights and preparing a good eBook still take work. But it can offer an alternative to reprinting, particularly when demand is limited or spread over time.

This is where eBooks could help broaden access to our literary and cultural heritage: not by magically lowering the price of every book, but by making affordable editions possible alongside printed ones.

For a digital publishing series, this can be a deliberate cultural choice: building a distinctive, carefully curated catalogue that is also affordable for readers, rather than simply transferring printed texts into a different container.

Readers’ reservations cannot be overcome by scolding them

Dismissing an attachment to paper as backwardness is unhelpful. Familiarity with a physical object, the pleasure of keeping it and the freedom to consult it without relying on an interface are all understandable reasons.

Once again, schools offer a useful insight: the Competition Authority reports that access to supplementary content through QR codes, without a login, has delivered good results. When digital access becomes simple and immediate, teachers and students show that they are willing to use it.

The issue, then, is also one of design. Clear pricing, understandable terms of use, offline reading and as few steps as possible should be part of the publishing offer, not details left to technical support.

The outdated role still assigned to eBooks has little to do with the technology itself. It lies in the assumption that they must remain subordinate to print: an extra copy, a code to activate, a format offered without any real rethinking of the reader’s experience.

There is no need to persuade everyone to abandon paper. What matters is ensuring that choosing digital means gaining a credible alternative, not settling for a compromise.