University of Chicago Press Announces Agreement With Amazon Digital Services

(Press Release) CHICAGO, Oct. 11, 2010—The University of Chicago Press today announced an agreement with Amazon Digital Services Inc. that will enable more than eighty academic and scholarly presses that are clients of the Chicago Distribution Center (CDC) to publish electronic books for sale in the Kindle Store.

“We’re very pleased to work with Amazon to bring our partner presses into this umbrella agreement,” said Garrett Kiely, director of the University of Chicago Press. “Kindle editions are Chicago’s largest source of e-book revenue, with sales growing each year. We think our partners will see similar success through this agreement.”

The CDC already offers its clients storage and distribution of e-books through BiblioVault, the digital content repository operated by the CDC. “But the addition of a streamlined and cost-effective solution for reaching Kindle customers will encourage more of our clients to dive into the e-book market,” said Karen Barch, CDC’s chief operations officer.

“Our vision for Kindle has always been to offer every book ever written, in any language, in print or out of print, all available in less than 60 seconds,” said Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content. “Having books available from academic presses through the University of Chicago Press is another step toward that vision, and we’re pleased to work with them to make these books available to Kindle customers.”

“The Chicago Distribution Center clearly understands the need of smaller university presses to be present in a digital marketplace,” said Dan Berkowitz, interim director of the University of Iowa Press. “This service to make more scholarly books available in the Amazon Kindle Store is a great win for smaller presses like the University of Iowa Press.”

About the University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest American university press, with three operating divisions—Books, Journals, and Distribution Services. The Books Division publishes approximately 250 books a year, has published over 11,000 books since its founding, and has over 5,300 books in print. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/