Amazon Names Larry Kirshbaum Publisher of Amazon Publishing Group

Posted on May 25, 2011

Amazon has named Larry Kirshbaum, former Time Warner Book Group CEO, as the publisher of the Amazon Publishing Group. Publishers Weekly reports that Amazon.com's hiring of Kirshbaum follows an extensive search. His first official day at Amazon will be July 5th.

Amazon.com has been busy this summer launching imprints in different genres. Amazon recently launched Thomas & Mercer, a mystery/thriller imprint, and Montlake, a romance imprint. Even before the hiring of Larry Kirshbaum, the launch of these imprints made it clear Amazon was becoming competition for publishers.

The New York Post reports that Amazon's hiring of Kirshbaum has rival publishers nervous. The Bookseller reports that some people in the book industry fear Amazon's publishing move could reduce competition.

Kirshbaum told the Wall Street Journal, "I was trying to find a way to do some publishing as an agent, and I was talking to various people to learn how an agent could best be a publisher as well. In the end, I realized it was cleaner to do this working for a company totally committed to digital publishing and that has the resources and structure to make this successful."