Bookwire officials have announced that the company has reached a new agreement with Amazon, ending a tense renegotiation of terms that saw Amazon briefly delist e-book titles distributed by the German digital distribution and publishing services company.
In a March 13 statement, Bookwire officials said that they were unable to share terms of the new agreement, but confirmed that the "relisting of the e-book titles is expected shortly." The new agreement comes after Bookwire's existing contract with Amazon ran out earlier this year. Since then, the two companies have struggled to come to terms on a new agreement, with Amazon delisting — i.e. taking down buy buttons -- Bookwire titles as a result. The exact timing of delisting has been a point of contention and forced negotiations into the pubic discourse, with several people in the publishing community having told PW that Amazon delisted titles up to two weeks in advance of Bookwire's contract running out, costing them a significant loss of revenue, while Amazon claims it held to and respected terms of the contract.
Citing declining margins and increased costs, Bookwire explained, in a letter to its customers, that it was working to "secure the long-term partnership on reasonable terms." For its part, Amazon countered that Bookwire was attempting to force Amazon into accepting "a significant move backwards in economics from the terms under which our two companies have successfully operated for years."
Bookwire distributes more than a million titles for some 2,300 publishing companies around the world—primarily in Germany, but also in the English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish–language markets, among others.
