Amazon Enters Children's Book Market By Acquiring Marshall Cavendish's Trade List

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Amazon announced Tuesday afternoon that it has a deal to acquire Marshall Cavendish Children's Book's US trade publishing list, comprising more than 450 children's books. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Amazon will publish the acquired titles "under an imprint of Amazon's New York publishing unit" under Larry Kirshbaum, who is now described as publisher of Amazon Publishing, East Coast Group, vaulting the company into the children's book market. Signaling larger intentions, the company says in the announcement "the acquisition creates the foundation for Amazon Publishing to further expand into picture books, chapter books and YA novels." The deal allows Marshall Cavendish to focus on the K-12 textbook and assessment books business in the United States, expanding its school publishing business globally.

“We’re excited to acquire the Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books titles and expand our publishing business in this area,” said vp Amazon Publishing Jeff Belle in a statement. "We believe the children's book market segment presents a unique opportunity to innovate in both print and digital formats. And since many of these titles are not readily available as eBooks, we see a chance to connect a terrific group of authors and illustrators with more readers. We also see the potential for similar deals across other categories in the future."

Kirshbaum adds in the release: "We look forward to working with these respected authors and illustrators. We will continue to publish these books in their handsome print editions and we think customers will love reading these books — most of them never available before digitally — with their families, using the brilliant color touchscreen on the Kindle Fire."

Amazon spokesperson Sarah Gelman told us that staff will continue to work from offices in Tarrytown "for the foreseeable future," and Amazon "is working with the MCCB team on the transition plan, and will be finalizing the ongoing business plan as we approach closing." Books will continue to be published under the Marshall Cavendish name for now, Gelman added. Publisher Margery Cuyler confirmed in a brief telephone interview that staff would remain with the company under Amazon, and that it was a "very exciting" development.

Advising Marshall Cavendish in the deal was Robin Warner at Atwood Capital Partners. All orders from retailers and libraries will continue to go to the existing sales teams (MCCB uses a network of independent rep groups to sell to the trade) until the deal closes--which could take up to six months. The addition of the Marshall Cavendish titles to Amazon's list will only increase the speculation as to whether or when the company will successfully enlist a trade distributor.

One of the first questions on the minds of authors and agents will be whether the new owner will make those newly-digitized versions of the Marshall Cavendish list exclusive to the Kindle platform or not. (There is likely nothing in standard contract language that would prevent this, though it could significantly impair the ongoing print sales of those books.)

While a number of observers have been quick to declare this Amazon's first purchase of a publishing list, it was just over a year ago that the company acquired most of the titles published by The Toby Press, comprising roughly 120 books. Those titles were republished under Amazon's Crossing and Encore imprints.
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