Andrew Wylie cancels exclusive deal with Amazon, re-partners with Random House

Hey, remember when these books were all released to Amazon directly by the literary agency instead of through the print publisher? No? You don’t care? Yeah, it’s a bit insidery, but the reason it was interesting to consumers is it meant that twenty classics of American literature that had never been in ebook format were finally being made available.

Anyway, that’s all mostly been called off. The agency and the publisher, both of which made some pretty strong public statements about the other back when the Amazon deal was announced, have made up. The two companies are now saying that Andrew Wylie’s agency will pull 13 of the 20 books from the Amazon store and Random House will take over as the ebook publisher for those titles.

Enough industry prattle; what does this mean for you? As of right now, nothing. The books are still available at the $9.99 price point (full list here), which while expensive for a classic is still better than what some publishers are doing with their backlists (cough Penguin and Ayn Rand cough). Will Random House hike the prices when it takes over? My guess is yes, but we’ll have to wait and see.

I also think this explains the minimalistic–I would argue design-free–covers that Wylie used for the ebook editions. This was likely never more than a gambit to improve his agency’s negotiating position with Random House, so a real cover design would have been a waste of money (and an expensive waste considering there were 20 titles to work with). The next time an agent releases a book with a non-cover, I’ll be more skeptical.

[Updated 25 Aug 2010 to correct info in 2nd paragraph.]

“Exclusive e-book deal with Amazon is called off” [Crain's New York Business]

(Photo: ganesha.isis)