Looking to broaden its distribution of print books, Amazon Publishing has reached a licensing agreement with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for HMH to publish and distribute all adult titles from Amazon Publishing’s New York office under New Harvest, a new HMH imprint. The agreement takes effect with Amazon Publishing’s fall list and gives HMH responsibility for distributing the titles in North America “outside of the Amazon platform.” The New Harvest imprint will appear on the spine of the book and at launch the imprint will be limited to Amazon books. The agreement does not include the recently acquired Marshall Cavendish children's list and Amazon had no comment on plans for its distribution.
Until this agreement, all of Amazon Publishing’s titles, from both the new East Coast group as well as the Seattle imprints, have had limited bookstore distribution with Amazon using the reps from its Brilliance Audio subsidiary to sell its titles. Bookstores have generally been reluctant to carry Amazon titles and the deal with HMH hasn't changed everyone' s position. Chris Morrow, of Northshire Bookstore, and David Didriksen, owner of Willow Books & cafe, both said that if the books were good, and they got good terms, they would carry the titles. Didriksen noted that he sells "a ton of Sterling" which is owned by Barnes & Noble. Morrow added that he hoped Amazon would make the e-books universally available as well. "If Amazon.com wants to partner with us to get their books out it needs to be a two way street," Morrow said. Becky Anderson, co-owner of Anderson's Bookshop, said the agreement won't change her stance to not carry Amazon titles. "We just can't," she said. Anderson added that she was disappointed that HMH had agreed to the licensing/distribution deal. "I'm not sure this is a good move on {HMH's] part. The thing that really sad about this is they've asked one of our most respected publishers to do this," she said.
Barnes & Noble has said it won’t carry any Amazon print titles unless it also has the ability to sell the e-book edition as well. Amazon has not disclosed if e-books editions of Amazon Publishing titles will be available to others. Terms of the deal between HMH and Amazon, including the length of the contract, weren't disclosed.
Last spring, HMH reached an agreement with Amazon to publish the trade paperback editions of 10 AmazonEncore and AmazonCrossing titles. “We have had great success with previous Amazon titles, including The Hangman’s Daughter, and we are thrilled to add New Harvest titles to the HMH list,” said Bruce Nichols, senior v-p and publisher of HMH’s adult trade division in a prepared statement. Amazon said its West Coast group will continue to work with HMH to continue to sub-license titles under HMH’s mariner imprint.
