Amazon to launch EU publishing arm

Already dominating book sales around the world and even more so in the Ebook industry, Amazon is set to expand its own publishing business into Europe as early as next year.

Based out of its Luxembourg, EU HQ, Amazon will be initially looking for English language authors. While it seems likely that it would expand into others further down the road, Amazon is at the moment being coy about long term aims. “As our CEO likes to say, ‘It’s still day one’. That is especially true of Amazon Publishing,” said Jeff Belle, vice president for the division. “We have much work to do, and many challenges ahead of us.”

He also highlighted recent publishing efforts by the company, like the 4-Hour Chef from Tim Ferriss. This made waves because many book stores refused to stock it since it was published by Amazon, ultimately leading to him promoting it conjunction with BitTorrent Inc. It hasn't sold as well as previous 4-hour books by the same author, but it did manage to push several tens of thousands of copies.

Considering it didn't have the support of brick and mortar stores, Amazon is claiming it as a success.

KitGuru Says: What do you guys think of Amazon taking over the book world? Is it a good thing since it's modernising as it goes, or will it result in a monopoly?

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