Steven Covey signs exclusive e-rights deal

I caught this article in The Bookseller this morning.  Stephen Covey has just signed a digital rights deal guaranteeing Amazon exclusivity to his two bestselling titles,  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Principle-Centered Leadership, in ebook form.

Covey has moved e-book rights to two of his bestselling books from his print publisher, Simon & Schuster Inc, to digital publisher RosettaBooks, which will sell the e-books via Amazon.com for one year.

According to the New York Times, this gives Amazon exclusive rights to sell electronic editions of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Principle-Centered Leadership. Covey is expected to gradually make other e-books available exclusively to Amazon, which will promote them on its web site.

The NYT said the move would "raise the already high anxiety level among publishers about the economics of digital publishing and could offer authors a way to earn more profits from their works than they do under the traditional system".

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  These two titles are are both readily available as cheap used copies and therefore the exclusivity deal is only mildly interesting, but should Covey extend this agreement to his freshly written works courting mega selling authors could be a game influencing strategy in the e-reader war.

Who will be the Betamax of e-readers? I think the technology is still young and it's still too early in the game to to call (plus I haven't actually seen a Nook yet) but I would love to hear your thoughts.

[Now Reading: Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay]

Comments

[Biblibio]

I think Amazon are going at this the wrong way. Obviously most people disagree with me (because Amazon is still the leader of the pack when it comes to eReaders), but trying to keep everything closed and limited is obnoxious and stupid. I suspect that given time and better competition (assuming Sony steps up its game a little, ahem ahem), things will change quite a bit. You're right - it's too early to call anyone a... betawhatnow? (is this another example of my age deficiency?)

It's unclear who the Betamax is going to be, but I'm confident that we'll be pretty darn surprised when the time comes.

[In Search Of Music]

Thanks  for building this together,
 I have no idea how much time it has saved me. :)
You have done a great job. So many tips, everything is so exactly.
Now we can see all the picture of this.Thank you for highlighting this.
Keep up your work.

[Jeux de voiture]

Thanks for this article. I love. I find your site with google and i not deçu. Sorry for my english.

[Büyü Nasıl yapılır]

Thanks for this article. I love. I find your site with google and i not deçu. Sorry for my english.