Friday, April 10, 2015

HarperCollins vs. Amazon?

Shelf Awareness

HarperCollins is "preparing to return" to an agency model for all e-book sales next Tuesday, April 14, according to Publishers Lunch, which said yesterday that "multiple retailers" have reported HarperCollins has notified them of the change, which requires retailers to sell at prices set by the publisher. (Collusion involving the implementation of the agency model for e-book sales was at the heart of the Justice Department's suit against five major publishers in 2012.) The change is apparently an "interim" one, before permanent contracts.

Last week, Business Insider, which is partly owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, said that the current contract between HarperCollins and Amazon will soon expire and that "HarperCollins is refusing to sign an agreement with the new terms that Amazon is asking," according to a source "with knowledge of the situation."

The source said that Amazon had offered an agreement like the ones signed last year by Hachette, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan. Business Insider added, "If HarperCollins and Amazon don't come to an agreement, no print or digital HarperCollins books will be available on Amazon once its existing contract runs out 'very soon,' our source says." Most observers wouldn't be surprised if the source works in Seattle.

Publicly Amazon said only that it has offered HarperCollins the same terms it offered the other three publishers. HarperCollins didn't comment on the report.
In the past year, HarperCollins has taken steps to sell directly to consumers, which would help it if Amazon were to retaliate against HarperCollins as it did last year against Hachette.

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