Amazon has launched a service called Amazon Source, which will allow local booksellers to sell Kindle and related accessories in their stores.
Independent bookstores throughout the country will now be able to earn by selling Amazon's Kindle range of eReaders and tablets. The new partnership program from Amazon will offer discounted units as well as accessories for resale through bookstores.
Amazon Source allows independent bookstore owners to purchase the Kindle devices at 6 percent discount. The devices include the new Kindle Fire HDX. Discount of 35 percent can be availed on Kindle accessories. Booksellers will also avail the 10 percent commission on every book purchased from a Kindle device sold.
"We believe that retailers, online or offline, small or large, should be striving to offer customers what they want-and many customers want to read both digital and print books," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle, in a statement. "For many years, bookstores have successfully sold print books on Amazon - now Amazon Source extends this opportunity to digital. With Amazon Source, customers don't have to choose between e-books and their favorite neighborhood bookstore-they can have both."
The new partnership program from Amazon is an extension of the partnership with U.K.'s Waterstones which eventually brought the Kindle to 300 stores.
"We are committed to offering the best possible book buying experience. It is a truly exciting prospect to harness the respective strengths of Waterstones and Amazon to provide a dramatically better digital reading experience for our customers," said James Daunt, MD of Waterstones, in a statement. "Alongside Amazon, we have married the best digital readers, the Kindle family, to the singular pleasures of browsing a curated bookshop. With the combination of our talents we are on our way to offering the exceptional customer proposition to which we both aspire."
