You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Hachette UK will sell e-books through the agency model in all its territories, and is already "in touch" with other retailers about moving to the agency model, chief executive Tim Hely Hutchinson has said.
In a letter seen by The Bookseller, which was sent to agents last Friday, Hely Hutchinson stressed the move was "in the long-term interests of the whole industry" and would result in Hachette UK setting the price of e-books.
"As we will be selling the books direct to consumers, we will be establishing the sales prices for those transactions," he said, adding that the use of the agency model would level the playing field for all retailers, regardless of size.
Hely Hutchinson did not put a time-scale on the discussions with e-booksellers beyond Apple, but the move could result in an increase in e-book prices of more than 30% on the Kindle, with titles such as Hodder's The Tree of Seasons selling at £9.99 on the iBookstore, but currently priced at £7.40 on Amazon.com. Currently, the majority of best-sellers on the iBookstore cost more than either the Kindle edition, which can be downloaded onto the iPad through the Kindle app, or the equivalent print edition on Amazon.co.uk.
The news comes amid reports that Apple's pricing model is facing early-stage inquiries into whether it breaches competition laws in the US, and amid widespread questions raised over the legality of the system here in the UK.
Despite this, a spokeswoman for Hachette UK separately insisted: "We've taken a considerable amount of expert advice, and have been assured it is legal in the UK and Europe."
Earlier this week, Pan Macmillan confirmed it had adopted the agency model.
In the letter Hely Hutchinson stated: "It is now time for us to be more pro-active in marketing e-books, setting appropriate e-book prices that take due account of the different features of online distribution and of public expectations."
He added: "Achieving these strategic aims comes at a cost to authors and to ourselves in terms of revenue per e-book sold, but we expect total book sales to rise substantially and we believe our strategy is in the long-term interests of the whole industry, very much including authors."
Describing 2010 as "a pivotal year for e-books", Hely Hutchinson also forecast "the likely introduction of Amazon's UK Kindle store, the unveiling of new generation readers and supporting websites and new offerings from Google".