Amazon Publishing Signs Best-Selling Author

Amazon.com today announced that Amazon Publishing's first major acquisition by its New York imprint is the next book in Timothy Ferriss' No. 1 New York Times best-selling "4-hour" series, "The 4-Hour Chef."

Amazon has been publishing books for several years and has allowed authors to self-publish Kindle ebooks but its new New York imprint is an effort to raise its profile by going after major authors likely to produce best-selling titles.  

A class-action antitrust suit last week accused five major publishers of colluding with Apple to raise the price of ebooks, a conspiracy that suit says worked so well that ebooks now cost as much or more than paperbacks.

When it introduced the Kindle ebook reader, Amazon was selling books for $9.99, far below the retail price.  When publishers reached their agreement to sell ebooks through Apple, they were able to force Amazon to raise its prices or lose its resale rights, the suit argues.

By publishing its own titles, Amazon regains the ability to charge whatever it wants.

The question, of course, is whether bookstores and other ebook sellers will carry Amazon's titles.  The New York Times today reports that some independent bookstores have said they do not intend to carry any books from the retailer, not wanting to give a dollar to a company they feel is putting them out of business.

But Larry Kirshbaum, who heads Amazon's new imprint, says no one in the book world should be worried about Amazon.

“Our success will only help the rest of publishing,” he told The New York Times.

Ferriss is author of the best sellers "The 4-Hour Body" and "The 4-Hour Workweek," the latter of which has been sold into 35 languages and has been on the New York Times best seller list for more than four years.

"The 4-Hour Chef," which is expected to be released in April 2012, will be published in print, enhanced digital and audio formats by the New York-based imprint of Amazon Publishing headed by Larry Kirshbaum.