Amazon Loses Exclusive E-Book Deal with Wylie
0
A while ago, news broke out about Amazon reaching a deal with Wylie Agency to distribute the work of its clients through Kindle store. Random House was not too happy about the exclusive deal, nor were some of Amazon’s competitors. Unfortunately for Amazon, the deal seems to have fallen through. It seems Random House was able to convince Wylie Agency to back out of the deal. After all, the company was ready to boycott future works by the agency:
The Wylie Agency’s decision to sell e-books exclusively to Amazon for titles which are subject to active Random House agreements undermines our longstanding commitments to and investments in our authors, and it establishes this agency as our direct competitor
Amazon has removed the titles in discussion from Kindle store. They are expected to make their way back to Amazon Kindle store in the near future (according to a statement delivered by Random House):
We are pleased to announce that The Wylie Agency and Random House have resolved our differences over the disputed Random House titles which have been included in the Odyssey Editions e-book publishing program. These titles are being removed from that program and taken off-sale. We have agreed that Random House shall be the exclusive e-book publisher of these titles for those territories in which Random House U.S. controls their rights. The titles soon will be available for sale on a non-exclusive basis through all of Random House’s current e-book customers.
The good news is Amazon and Wylie won’t have to deal with any legal issues over their agreement. Amazon and Apple are playing dangerous games by going after these exclusive deals. It is only a matter of time before the U.S. government gets on their cases. For now, large publishers are more than ready to fight back.
