We reported last week that Amazon cut a really sweet deal with a New York Publishing group. They cut exclusive ebook deals for such authors as Salmon Rushdie, Oliver Sacks and Phillip Roth. Amazon also gets access to the estates of William S. Burroughs of the Beat Generation fame.
This created an uproar in the industry, especially since e-books are now outselling real books.
This exclusive arrangement with Amazon has attracted some powerful opposition in the form of Connecticut attorney general, Richard Blumenthal. He has opened an investigation to see whether or not the deals recently done by Amazon and Apple have violated any rules and regulations. His main beef is this exclusive arrangements will be anti-competitive to new E-Book companies from starting up. Also, not only does it affect start-ups, but it could also prevent Sony, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Boarders from selling ebooks by specific authors.
Richard had this to say “The e-book market is set to explode—with analysts predicting that e-book readers will be among the holiday season’s biggest electronics gifts—warranting prompt review of the potential anti-consumer impacts. This restriction blocks cheaper and competitive prices for consumers.”
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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.
