Hello Agency pricing, bye bye cheap ebooks?

In an email seen by The Bookseller, Gardners, wrote to retailers telling them of this change from Hachette, which it said would be effective from Monday, 20th September. Gardners provides e-books for retailers including Tesco, The Book Depository and independent bookshops. In an attached agreement document for retailers, it said: “[Retailers] shall agree that it shall not alter the customer price of any e-book without [Hachette’s] prior written consent.”

Gardners said retailers must sign up to the agreement if they wish to continue selling Hachette e-books. The email added: “Please note that due to the stringent requirements in the agreement I am unable to negotiate and this agreement will be applied to every reseller, including Amazon and Apple. These are not Gardner terms, but the publisher’s and may I suggest that should you wish to ‘discuss’ the terms, direct the queries to the publisher.”

via Hachette UK to set e-book prices from Monday | theBookseller.com.