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Titles published by the Big 5 publishing houses are not available on Amazon’s new Kindle Unlimited plan. Jeff Bezos is Amazon CEO.
- Rachel Lerman
- Staff Writer- Puget Sound Business Journal
- Email | Twitter
Hundreds of thousands of books are accessible under Amazon's new virtual library card, but some of the top sellers are missing.
Titles of the five biggest publishers — HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House and Macmillan — are not available.
Amazon's ongoing battle with Hachette seems to have branched out to the other major publishers as well, as they realize Amazon's low-cost e-publishing is attractive to many independent authors as well as customers.
Read: As Amazon rolls out Kindle Unlimited, Wilmington’s ‘Netflix for e-books’ readies for battle
It remains to be seen how many customers will sign up for Kindle Unlimited with so many notable books missing. The Big 5, which have their own critics, and Amazon don't seem to be making any effort to play nice with each other.
Representatives from HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster confirmed the companies are not participating, the New York Times reports. Penguin Random House and Macmillan declined to comment.
Some authors publish their books under multiple publishing houses, so some titles will still be available. And thousands of books published by smaller houses and Amazon itself are online.
Amazon revealed the Kindle Unlimited plan Friday. It works like a Netflix for books – customers can pay $ 9.99 per month and read as many as they want of the 600,000 titles available, including some audiobooks.
It's similar to an (expensive) library card, though Amazon promises there won’t be any overdue charges.
Lobby group Author Earnings said in a report released this month that 31 percent of e-book sales on Amazon come from self-published authors.
Rachel Lerman covers technology and retail for the Puget Sound Business Journal.
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