Amazon Fears iBookstore & Seeking 3 Year Contracts

iPad and iBookstore, is venturing into publishing in a couple of weeks. Amazon is fearful, juding by their actions. Amazon's Kindle could fall by the wayside regarding e-book sales.

Due to anticipation of Apple's grand opening of iBookstore, Amazon is now trying to get e-book publishers to sign three year contracts. These contracts have a "no compete" clause so that other retailers will not get better prices or treatment, according to The New York Times.

Earlier this year, Amazon had a conflict with Macmillan over them switching to an agency model. That model allowed retailers like Amazon to act as agents for the publisher. These agents would also earn a 30% commission on prices set by the publisher. Amazon commented that those prices were "needlessly high."

During that well publicized issue, Amazon's stock fell. At that point, Amazon temporarily stopped selling all Macmillan books in protest.

It will be interesting to see just what Amazon will do to protect their share of sales on April 3rd when Apple's iBookstore launchs in the US on iPad.

Apple has also been trying to get participating publishers involved with its iBookstore, The New York Times reported. They have been courting Macmillan, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Hachette.

Random House Publishing is the only one who has not signed on yet, The Times said.

Participating publishers will use the agency model for iBookstore sales. The publishers will set their own prices and Apple will get 30 percent of those sales.

Apple does have include a "no compete" clause that states that publishers must not allow other retailers to sell their e-books for a lower price than their iBookstore offers, according to The Times.

Amazon also launched their new Kindle for Macintosh on Thursday. It is a free application used for reading Kindle books on Macintosh computers.