Amazon and Bloomsbury Publishing have been selling e-books without an agreement for the past couple of months. This situation came to a head last week when it looked like all Harry Potter books would be pulled from Amazon. This made waves in the publishing world, as customers could not buy many bestselling books in the UK and worldwide.
Amazon stated in a media post, “We extended the contract under its current terms several times to reach an agreement, but despite our best efforts over the last seven months, Bloomsbury has refused to engage in a good faith negotiation to discuss a new contract to sell their titles in our store. Unfortunately, the latest extension expires at midnight on the 23rd of January. After that time, Amazon will no longer be able to sell Bloomsbury print books in the UK, Europe, and Australia or Bloomsbury ebooks for the Kindle books worldwide.”
It now looks like the situation has been resolved. In a statement to Good e-Reader, Amazon said, “As of January 23rd, an agreement in principle has been reached between Amazon and Bloomsbury, and Bloomsbury books continue to be available for our customers.”
It is good news that Bloomsbury print and e-books will remain available on Amazon. This includes titles such as Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.