In an unexpected about - face , publisher Random House announced on Monday thatit would assume the agency good example for einsteinium - book sales agreement in the U.S. , beginning March 1 . This may pave the agency for the world ’s largest English - language publishing company — and the final remaining holdout among the six major publishing houses — to get together Apple ’s iBookstore .
Under the agency model , publishers lay the damage for e - ledger titles with 30 pct of the cost going to the retailer . strait familiar ? That ’s the same cutting Apple takes of medicine and apps via its iTunes and App Stores . So , it was perhaps not a surprise that Apple ’s iBookstore , plunge alongside the iPad last year , also work under the agency theoretical account . antecedently , publishers sell claim to retailer for a wholesale price , with the retailers add together a markup of their own .
Shortly before the iPad appear , Amazon revamp its own e - book model for many statute title , giving 70 percent of the revenue to the publisher ( which had previously only received 30 percent ) . Some of the additional stipulation in that mass breed a fighting between Amazon and another major publishing house , Macmillan , thoughthe online retail hulk finally conceded .
At the fourth dimension of the iBookstore launching , five of the six major English - language publishers had signed on with Apple , leaving Random House as the sole elision . That may change with Monday ’s news , though a Random House spokesman toldMacworldthat the announcement does not confirm availability of the publisher ’s e - Scripture title in the iBookstore . Random House ’s statement does , however , allude to “ the opportunity to shape new retail relationships . ” And , with an iPad - refer annunciation apparently imminent , we may be pick up those titles sooner rather than afterwards .
