James Daunt announces Waterstones Kindle deal...

"At Waterstones, we are committed to improving our bookshops quite radically to offer the best possible book buying experience. It is a truly exciting prospect to harness also the respective strengths of Waterstones and Amazon to provide a dramatically better digital reading experience for our customers.

"The best digital readers, the Kindle family, will be married to the singular pleasures of browsing a curated bookshop. With the combination of our talents we can offer the exceptional customer proposition to which we both aspire."

James Daunt

• Category

  Entertainment

[rollthediceagain]

Backward step for existing Waterstone eBook customers ~ Kindle doesn't support ePUB books, they only support Kindle format which you can't use on any other eReader so you're stuck with Amazon ever after. Amazon increases it's increasing grip on the book market both digital & paper.

If Waterstone have signed an exclusive deal with Amazon they won't be offering ePUB so basically have raised 2 fingers to their customers.

I won't be buying a Kindle or buying, it seems, from Waterstones again.

[Waterstonescom]

Hi rollthediceagain,

Waterstones have no plans for removing our current eBooks from the website. You will still be able to buy ePUB books from Waterstonesdotcom, in fact we encourage you to if that's what you would rather use.

As James suggests we are attempting to offer the best and broadest range for our customers. Baring in mind this video was recorded 3 months ago the teams here, including our newly established digital team.

[rrwryan]

Here's an idea. Redesign the useless Waterstones App for iOS/Android, and allow it to purchase and also read e-books bought from the Waterstones website. Waterstones is so backwards it's embarrassing.

[Waterstonescom]

Hi rrwryan, thanks for this.

What you suggest is actually very relevant. I'll pass it on to our team here.

We're still certain that the range of Kindles will compliment the service in our bricks and mortar bookshops, but this service could potentially open up our products.

[Charles Luxford]

This is great positive news for the book and the eBook market. There is an extra and very Waerstone-market-friendly/lucr­ative aspect I can envisage, not covered by your press release. A traditional presentation/proposal will follow soon.

Charles Luxford (Digital Author)

[Waterstonescom]

Hi Charles, we've announced the range of Kindles. You are right of course, but that announcement is still to come. Thanks for your positive feedback.

[maxudov]

he looks like he's been crying.

[evilandy666]

as a waterstones employee i am not convinced that encouraging our customers buy from our main competitor from inside our own store is a good thing. just glad ebooks are still such a rip-off price-wise so we stay in business. for now.

[Amir Ismail]

It would be useful to add an option for a digital copy when one buys the physical book, for a token fee - or preferably, for free.

[Broomfondle1]

What happened to the B&N deal? I heard in 2011 that Waterstones was going to start selling the Nook sometime in the Spring, 2012.

Personally, I think the Kindle deal is a sell out.

[ilovethiemo]

What an amazing idea!!

[ILoveScottable]

*out

[ILoveScottable]

No this guy bought them ought and turned everything to shit