Perseus Signs an EBooks Deal for the iPad
By MOTOKO RICH AND BRAD STONEApple’s iBookstore on the forthcoming iPad is set to get larger. The company has just signed a deal with the largest distributor of independent publishers to sell electronic versions of it books on the new device.
Apple’s iPad
Perseus Books Group, a large independent publisher that also distributes works from 330 other smaller presses including Grove Atlantic, Harvard Business School Press, Zagat and City Lights Books, signed a deal last week with Apple, following five of the six biggest publishers that have already signed agreements with Apple.
Perseus’s deal comes as Amazon.com, the largest online seller of printed books and the biggest e-book seller in the United States, has put pressure on publishers who have not yet signed deals with Apple to refrain from doing so. Amazon, which makes the Kindle e-reader, holds about 90 percent of the e-book market. With Apple’s iPad coming on the scene, Amazon is fighting to keep as much of its market lead as possible.
Publishers have provisionally welcomed Apple’s entry into the market because Apple’s deals allow publishers to set consumer prices, within limits. Publishers have had no control over consumer prices at Amazon, which has generally sold new releases and best sellers for $9.99, a price that publishers feared would erode profits in the long term.Like the five other publishers who have already signed with Apple, Perseus will set consumer prices and Apple will serve as an agent, taking a 30 percent commission on each sale. E-book versions of most newly released adult general fiction and nonfiction will cost $12.99 to $14.99. All publishers whose books are distributed by Perseus will be allowed to opt in to the deal.
Tom Neumayr, an Apple spokesman, confirmed that it had signed a deal with Perseus. In an e-mail statement, David Steinberger, chief executive of Perseus, said, “We’re working with Apple to make books from The Perseus Books Group and the independent publishers we represent available on the iBookstore starting on April 3. As the leading provider of distribution services for independent publishers, including digital distribution through our Constellation digital service, Perseus is thrilled to be making our books available on the iPad.”
A person with direct knowledge of the talks between Apple and Perseus said that a Perseus executive had flown to Seattle to meet with Amazon this week. A spokesman for Amazon could not be reached for comment.
In talks with publishers, Apple has said it would not let other retailers sell any book for a lower price than the price in its new iBookstore. Several of the larger publishers are seeking to renegotiate agreements with Amazon and other e-book retailers to mirror the deals with Apple.
But Amazon has only agreed to those terms so far with one publisher, Macmillan, and is still in talks with the other big four, as well as other independent publishers. Amazon has told smaller presses that it does not want to enter into so-called “agency” agreements with them. These publishers fear that if they sign deals with Apple, Amazon will discontinue selling their books, as it did briefly during a dispute with Macmillan.
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