British Book Chain Waterstones Cuts Ebook Deal With Arch Enemy Amazon.com

Posted on May 21, 2012

Struggling British book chain Waterstones has teamed up with Amazon.com and will now sell Kindle ebook readers and ebooks. The Telegraph notes that the announcement came as quite a shock to the bookselling world, because of Waterstone's legendary antipathy towards the etailer. Just a few months ago James Daunt, the head of Waterstones, called Amazon "a ruthless, moneymaking devil."

So what changed his mind? Amazon offered him a deal. Right now, the store makes no money on ebooks. By selling Kindles in-store, he can offer tutorials on how to use the Kindle and make ebook suggestions to customers. He wants to combine the hand selling of a real bookstore with the ease of use of an ebook reader.

Daunt has other plans, as well. He wouldn't give specifics, but didn't deny that Waterstones will soon offer "Kindle Bundles", in which the customer who buys a hardback can purchase the ebook of the same title for a discount. He did confirm that customers will be able to see the entire ebook while they are in the store. That is significant. On Amazon.com customers can only read a few pages of an ebook before buying. At Waterstones they can browse the entire book. The store is also rolling out free Wi-Fi. Daunt is making the bold moves in order to compete with WH Smith, which sells the Kobo ereader in its stores.