Amazon gets exclusivity deal

[B.Tackitt]

Iconic Books, Such as John Updike's Pulitzer Prize-Winning Rabbit Series and Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita," Now Available Electronically for the First Time Ever, Exclusively in the Kindle Store
Amazon's Kindle Store now exclusively offering 20 books from The Wylie Agency's new Odyssey Editions imprint
SEATTLE, Jul 22, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that The Wylie Agency is publishing 20 books from some of literature's most influential authors through its new Odyssey Editions imprint (www.odysseyeditions.com) and making them available for sale exclusively in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). This is the first time any of the titles--which include Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead," Philip Roth's "Portnoy's Complaint" and Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man"--have been available electronically, and all of the books are exclusive to the Kindle Store for two years. Starting today, customers can download these books for $9.99 from the Kindle Store and read them everywhere--on their Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry, PC, Mac, iPad and Android devices.


"Our goal with Kindle is to make every book, ever published, in print or out of print, available in less than 60 seconds," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. "Having these prominent and important books available through The Wylie Agency's Odyssey Editions is another great step toward this goal. We're excited to let our customers read books like 'Rabbit Run' for the first time ever electronically."

"As the market for e-books grows, it will be important for readers to have access in e-book format to the best contemporary literature the world has to offer," said Andrew Wylie, President of Odyssey Editions. "This publishing program is designed to address that need, and to help e-book readers build a digital library of classic contemporary literature."

The Wylie Agency operates internationally from offices in New York and London. In business for more than 30 years, it has built a reputation for consistently high standards. The writers and estates it represents include many of the greatest names in 20th and 21st century literature. Odyssey Editions is the first digitally native literary imprint launch of its kind.

Books available in the Kindle Store through Odyssey Editions include modern classics such as Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children," Oliver Sacks' "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita," John Cheever's "The Stories of John Cheever" and four novels from John Updike's Rabbit series.

The 20 e-books published by Odyssey Editions carry an elegant and unified new look designed in collaboration with Enhanced Editions (www.enhanced-editions.com). Features include:


•Newly-designed jackets
•Interior typography adhering to best conventions of book design and reading on Kindle
•Colophon, book covers and series design optimized for the Kindle screen

The 20 books being published by Odyssey Editions and made available exclusively on Kindle are:


•"London Fields" by Martin Amis
•"The Adventures of Augie March" by Saul Bellow
•"Ficciones" (Spanish Edition) by Jorge Luis Borges
•"Junky" by William Burroughs
•"The Stories of John Cheever" by John Cheever
•"Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
•"Love Medicine" by Louise Erdrich
•"The Naked and the Dead" by Norman Mailer
•"Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov
•"The Enigma of Arrival" by V.S. Naipaul
•"The White Castle" by Orhan Pamuk
•"Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth
•"Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie
•"The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks
•"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson
•"Rabbit Run" by John Updike
•"Rabbit Redux" by John Updike
•"Rabbit is Rich" by John Updike
•"Rabbit at Rest" by John Updike
•"Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh

The Kindle editions of these books are now available for sale exclusively in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). Kindle offers the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read. The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 630,000 books, including New Releases and 106 of 110 New York TimesBestsellers. Over 510,000 of these books are $9.99 or less, including 75 New York Times Bestsellers. Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle.

For more information about these books, visit www.amazon.com/odyssey or www.odysseyeditions.com. Eleven of these books will be available globally. Kindle is in stock and available for immediate shipment today at www.amazon.com/kindle.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle and Kindle DX are the revolutionary portable readers that wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and personal documents to a crisp, high-resolution electronic ink display that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle and Kindle DX utilize the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so users never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Kindle is the #1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, and www.amazon.cn. As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.


SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc.

Amazon.com, Inc.Media Hotline, 206-266-7180www.amazon.com/pr

To bad they are all @ $9.99

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by B.Tackitt

To bad they are all @ $9.99

Why? $9.99 is Amazon's standard Kindle price. This is a decent deal for folks who want ebook editions of the titles offered. (And I deal is exclusive to Amazon for two years, so depending on how the experiment goes, we may see the books offered in other formats down the road.)

I find it interesting that the Wylie Agency should deal direct with Amazon to set this up, and more interesting that the Agency apparently had the electronic rights, and could deal direct, bypassing the publishers of the various print editions.
______
Dennis

[fjtorres]

This is a very interesting deal but not just because of the two-year Amazon exclusivity.

The big news here is that the Wylie Agency is now also a publisher, in competition with the BPHs that hold the print book rights.
Think about it; the BPHs don't generally accept unsolicited manuscripts, they only deal with agents. The agents are, in effect, the top-level gatekeepers, the content feeders to the BPHs. And they are *bypassing* the BPHs and going straight to the retailer.

Yes, it's only for ebooks. For now.
But nothing stops them from taking back the print rights at some future time, deoending on the contracts in question. Or, at some future data (and pretty soon, I suspect) an agent running into a surefire million-seller might decide *not* to shop the book to any BPH but rather front it themselves.
Disintermediation in action.
The publishers have farmed out so much of the publishing process they are at serious risk of being cut out of the loop altogether.

Two things:
1- this is *not* the first such deal; last December Stephen Covey's Books were signed through Rosetta Books to a similar tied-exclusive deal.
2- The BPHs have litigated (and lost) ebook rights for backlist titles that predate electronic rights clauses. So any book contracts that do not explicitly assign ebook rights along with print and/or audio rights reside by default with the author. And their agent.

One could say this is a *true* Agency Model where the author and their agent license the book rights straight to the retailer. No BPH required.

Expect a lot of established authors to take a look at this and decide that instead of fighting the BPHs over royalty rates they can simply get an Agency to front them. The Agency gets a bigger cut, the author gets a bigger cut, the BPH gets zilch.

Guess it's true, "what goes around comes around".

[Kali Yuga]

Looks like Odyssey is new. I'm guessing Vintage, Wylie etc are striking deals with the estates and authors.

$10 doesn't seem bad, it's a tad below the paperback price. Plus, no shipping fees, as per usual....

[EowynCarter]

Exclusivity. I hate that word.

No will buy !

[kjk]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

One could say this is a *true* Agency Model where the author and their agent license the book rights straight to the retailer. No BPH required.

Suddenly that Agency model is looking pretty good

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by kjk

Suddenly that Agency model is looking pretty good

Gotta love the law of unintended consequences.

[loveangel]

i really hate that

[MaggieScratch]

Why would anyone think it's a good idea to limit themselves like that? While Kindle users are the vast majority of ebook users, there are others. Why say to someone who does not own a Kindle, "Sorry, I don't want to sell this book to you"? It makes no sense.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

Why would anyone think it's a good idea to limit themselves like that? While Kindle users are the vast majority of ebook users, there are others. Why say to someone who does not own a Kindle, "Sorry, I don't want to sell this book to you"? It makes no sense.

Amazon probably made it worth their while. Besides, you don't need a Kindle to read Kindle books if you use Kindle apps.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

Why would anyone think it's a good idea to limit themselves like that? While Kindle users are the vast majority of ebook users, there are others. Why say to someone who does not own a Kindle, "Sorry, I don't want to sell this book to you"? It makes no sense.

Do geo-restrictions make sense?
Do format windows?

These are backlist titles that go back decades; a two year exclusivity window in return for Amazon's help in establishing the new publishing house? Plenty of sense. Probably up-front cash, higher royalties, legal assistance for the lwsuits to come. Lots of reasons.

But in the end it's all the same; a better deal than going through the BPHs.
Don't forget, the new publishing imprint is not going away.
We're looking at an iceberg.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

Amazon probably made it worth their while. Besides, you don't need a Kindle to read Kindle books if you use Kindle apps.

They don't run on the device I use to read Or any device I would like to read on. Save for the kindle, but i'll lost too many other shops.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

They don't run on the device I use to read Or any device I would like to read on. Save for the kindle, but i'll lost too many other shops.

I'd expect any company to pick a wide target, unless it's serving a niche market. You're apparently not part of the market they've decided to pursue. You have a choice of buying or not. That's how the marketplace works. No company is obligated to serve you.

[AnemicOak]

From Kindle Daily Nation...

Update: Apparently Random House does feel strongly that it has legal arrows in its quiver to fight this development, and Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum told Publisher's Marketplace this morning, "We are disappointed by Mr. Wylie's actions, which we dispute. Last night, we sent a letter to Amazon disputing their rights to legally sell these titles, which are subject to active Random House publishing agreements. Upon assessing our business options, we will be taking appropriate action."

http://kindlehomepage.blogspot.com/2...deal-will.html

[seagull]

$9.99? I dunno but here in the UK I just bought Lolita for $7.80 and Midnight's Children for $7.56