Amazon angers publishers with Kindle e-reader deal

Amazon has struck a deal with the powerful literary agent Andrew Wylie that, some fear, could spell the end of the traditional publishing industry.
 
The internet retailer, which produces the Kindle e-reader, has reached an agreement with Wylie that will allow it to electronically publish the works of the authors he represents, cutting out book publishers altogether.
 
The Wylie Agency represents hundreds of writers including Martin Amis, Oliver Sacks, Salman Rushdie, and Philip Roth, as well the estates of William Burroughs, Hunter S Thompson, John Updike, WH Auden, Saul Bellow and many others.
 
The deal with Amazon will lead to the release of e-book editions, known as Odyssey Editions, of works by Wylie's authors, including Nabokov's Lolita, VS Naipaul's The Enigma of Arrival and Updike's Rabbit tetralogy, which will only be available via Amazon.com's Kindle store.
 
The deal is a coup for Amazon, which says sales of its e-reader have also been given a boost by the launch of Apple's iPad. But it has enraged the publishing industry.
 
Random House, which publishes a number of the books that are to be made available as Odyssey Editions, disputed Amazon's "rights to legally sell these titles".
 
It also warned Wylie that it would not enter "into any new English-language business agreements with the Wylie Agency until this situation is resolved".
 
The US chief executive of Macmillan, John Sargent blogged: "This is smart retailing, and a great deal for Amazon. But it is an extraordinarily bad deal for writers, illustrators, publishers, other booksellers, and for anyone who believes that books should be as widely available as possible."
 
Even before the deal with Wylie, Amazon's Kindle has been performing well - partly thanks to a rival e-reader, the Apple iPad.
 
Amazon's UK managing director, Brian McBride, said: "The iPad has made more people aware of e-readers. Even when people buy iPads, they are downloading the Kindle app in pretty significant numbers."
 
There was more bad news for traditional publishers as McBride revealed: "For every 100 hardbacks we've sold in the past three months, we've sold 143 Kindle books." ·