Amazon Publishing Footprint Deepens
The company that has brought us into the digital book age, has made another big stride in actually publishing paper versions of those online tomes we love to read.
Today, Amazon.com announced that it has signed up #1 New York Times best-selling author Timothy Ferriss, who has agreed to let the online retail giant publish the next book in his popular “4 Hour” series.
Ferris has gained acclaim for his previous two works, including “The 4-Hour Body” and “The 4-Hour Workweek,” which has been translated into 35 languages, and published by Random House’s Crown imprint. He was nominated for Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People of 2007” award, as well as Forbes’ “Names You Need to Know in 2011.”
Amazon Publishing is slated to release the next book in Ferris’ series, “The 4-Hour Chef,” sometime around April of 2012. “Like every book Tim has published to date, ‘The 4-Hour Chef’ is a watershed work, and an ideal way to launch our new publishing imprint in New York,” said Larry Kirshbaum, Amazon Publishing Vice President and Publisher.
Amazon will be publishing “The 4-Hour Chef” in paper version, as well as digital e-reader version and in an audio format. Mr. Ferriss is excited about where his new relationship with publisher Amazon is heading, stating “The opportunity to partner with a technology company that is embracing publishing is very different than partnering with a publisher embracing technology.”
This is not Amazon’s first foray into publishing print works, as Amazon Publishing’s burgeoning empire includes reprinting and releasing works through its AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, Thomas and Mercer, and Montlake Romance imprints. The Amazon Publishing imprint began with a short book series put together for The Domino Project, the out-of-the-box brain child of bestselling author Seth Godin.
With the step of adding Timothy Ferriss’ latest work in the “4-Hour” series to their offerings, Amazon’s publishing footprint just got awfully deeper. Just two months ago, Amazon announced that it had landed publication rights for the works of late mystery writer Ed McBain, a pseudonym for Evan Hunter, who died in 2005.
A few independent and smaller bookstores have already stated they will not put Amazon Publishing works on their shelves, as they see the company’s e-book efforts as a challenge to their continued business.
As Amazon Publishing continues signing contracts with big names and creating paper versions of their works, their minds just might change...
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