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UK publishers will not be setting the prices of e-books in Amazon's UK Kindle, the retailer has disclosed.
However, unlike in the United States where the top five publishers set their e-book prices, Amazon will dictate the pricing of its e-books and has promised they will be the lowest in the market. Speaking to The Bookseller, Steve Kessel, senior vice president of Amazon Kindle, also predicted Kindle sales of a book would outstrip its paperback sales by next year.
The UK is the only market outside the United States that will have a localised Kindle store. The Kindle was made available internationally last October in 140 countries. When asked why it took the best part of 12 months to launch a UK Kindle store, Kessel said: "We wanted to build a great local experience but it takes time to get a book selection together of more than 400,000 titles."
He also denied Amazon was approaching agents with a view to penning deals similar to the Andrew Wylie's controversial Odyssey Editions. He said: "Wylie came to us and said he had a series of books he wanted to sell through the Kindle store. We are not out there contacting agents. When we do talk to folks we tell them work with their publishers to get their backlist cleared and digitised."
Kessel also denied the new Kindle was a response to the Apple iPad, reiterating sales of the device had increased since the iPad was launched earlier this year. He said: "From Amazon's perspective the take off of the iPad and tablet devices is very exciting. People sitting on their couch and surfing the internet means we will sell more shoes, more barbeque grills or more groceries."
Publishers have welcomed the launch of the UK-specific store, which they hoped would have a "very swift" effect on sales.
Atlantic chief executive Toby Mundy said: "I suspect that there is terrific pent-up demand for the Kindle device and for e-books, and this news is a landmark moment in the long history of British bookselling and publishing. I would expect it to have a very swift, and significant effect, especially in category fiction publishing."
Iain Millar, Quercus marketing and digital publishing manager, added: "It is a real step forward for the UK e-book market. We all know that the UK has some way to go to catch up with the US, and one of the reasons for this is the American ‘feel’ of some major ebook stores. A Kindle store with a more British flavour would provide potential customers with a new level of confidence, and in turn to increased sales.”