This post by Rachel Thompson originally appeared on San Francisco Book Review on 10/9/14.
Booktrope announces a new business relationship beginning with a mutual licensing deal that deepens ties with Amazon.com to a much more significant degree.
Booktrope is a Seattle startup that says it’s reinventing publishing by providing efficient, online services to creative teams – authors, editors, designers and others involved in producing books — in order to produce high quality titles for readers at reasonable prices. By all outward appearances, Amazon and Booktrope share a strong commitment to keeping ebook prices substantially lower than print, allowing consumers to benefit from new technology, while still affording authors deserved compensation.
The relationship kicks off with a licensing agreement which includes fifteen titles to be reissued under Amazon Publishing as e-books and audio books. Booktrope will continue to publish print versions of these titles and to manage development and publication of future books by the authors.
I sat down (virtually) with Katherine Sears, CMO and co-founder of Booktrope to get the nitty-gritty on the deal.
Rachel Thompson: Help me understand this, did Amazon just take over Booktrope’s digital book business?
Katherine Sears: No – not at all! Initially this agreement covers ebooks and some audio books for only fifteen of our nearly 300 titles. However, this is the beginning of what is intended to be a longer term business arrangement, so we hope to announce many more titles being licensed in this same way over the coming months. And, of course, we are always exploring other ways for our two companies to work together.
RT: What led you to this relationship with Amazon?
Read the full post on San Francisco Book Review.