The Myth of Amazon's "Exclusive" E-books
By Emily Williams in Publishing Perpectives

Amazon.com made a big splash earlier this month with its announcement that international megastar Paulo Coelho would make 17 of his books in the original Portuguese available exclusively on Amazon for six months. The press release, parroted on a number of news sites, proclaimed this "the first time any of these editions have been available as electronic books," and since the exclusive deal was struck directly with the author and his agent it seemed to echo an earlier announcement of exclusive Kindle distribution for business author Stephen Covey's books.

(read on ...)

Is Amazon's 70% Royalty on E-books Worth the Restrictions?
By Edward Nawotka

Today's lead story by Emily Williams questions the "exclusive" status of Amazon.com e-book deals with Paulo Coelho and Harvard Business Review Press. As she demonstrates, both Coelho and Harvard Business Review Press have offered e-book versions of their work for sometime, including titles that overlap with Amazon's offerings.

Of course, the news that these two well-known brands (for Coelho is as much a brand as HBRP) opted to forge a relationship with Amazon and promote it as exclusive demonstrates the marketing power of the Amazon brand, and suggests they are offering these authors very favorable terms.

(read on ...)