Amazon New York has said for many months it was their intention to make the start-up imprint's ebooks available for sale by other ebooksellers. Though they are down to the wire, since their fall release schedule started yesterday with Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine's OUTSIDE IN: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business, and Jessica Valenti's WHY HAVE KIDS? publishes September 4, the line has reached a distribution agreement with Ingram's Core Source program, paidContent reports. That agreement comes after Amazon dipped a toe into making their ebooks non-exclusive as we reported in June, when Houghton Mifflin Harcourt offered ebooks of Oliver Pötzsch's THE DARK MONK: and THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER, which were carried by other major ebook platforms. HMH is Amazon New York's print partner via the New Harvest imprint.
Of course carrying is one thing; actively competing is another, since Amazon.com is listing some of the ebooks for sale at below wholesale cost. Amazon New York's visible ebook pricing policy is currently inconsistent as well. Manning's book has a "digital list price" of $15.99, discounted at Amazon to $9.99, and Valenti's book has a DLP of $14.99 but is discounted all the way down to $4.99. Tim Ferriss's The 4-Hour Chef has a DLP of $22 (compared to a print list price of $35), and is also discounted at Amazon to $9.99.
Other forthcoming titles, however, including Penny Marshall's MY MOTHER WAS NUTS, Will Wiles' THE CARE OF WOODEN FLOORS, Benjamin Anastas's TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, and ELIMINATION NIGHT by Anonymous don't have digital list prices at all--only print prices, discounted sharply on the Kindle editions. On the two Oliver Potzsch novels, Amazon deep-discounts them to $3.99 and $4.99, while BN's Nook versions are discounted 16% from list price, selling at $8.39 each.
Kobo will reestablish a presence in US retail booksellers that they have lacked since Borders liquidated under an agreement with the American Booksellers Association that takes over from the soon-to-be-cancelled Google eBooks relationship. The WSJsays the new agreement will be effective in October (ahead of Google's scheduled termination of their affiliates in January 2013); the ABA simply says it will launch "this fall," with approximately 400 stores expected to participate.
The ABA held conversations with a variety of potential new partners, said to include such providers as Copia and the soon-to-launch Zola Books (which is enrolling its own independent bookstore affiliates in any event, signing more than 50 to date.) Kobo chief executive Michael Serbinis indicates to the WSJ that indie booksellers will be able to sell Kobo's reading devices on some kind of risk-free consignment basis as well: "Every independent can easily order Kobo devices at no risk and start offering them to their customers, and with that sell mobile content." The company will provide an in-store display for devices and offer in-person training seminars.
Also, "Oren Teicher, ABA's chief executive, said the Kobo agreement will let booksellers share in revenue from e-books sold to any of their customers regardless of whether the sale comes via a Kobo reader or a Kobo app on another company's device." The ABA told members in an e-mail, "ABA members will share in the revenue on every sale." Along with their competitors, Kobo is also expected to launch updates to its ereaders and Vox tablet later this fall.