Stephen Covey

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that 16 of the top 100 best-selling paid Kindle books in March are exclusive to the Kindle Store and available for Prime members with a Kindle to borrow for free through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.  These 16 books, which include only paid units and do not take into consideration borrowed or free units,  include Kindle Singles “An Unexpected Twist” by Andy Borowitz and “Bearded Lady” by Mara Altman, “Easily Amused” by Karen McQuestion, books 1-3 in Michael Wallace’s Righteous Series, and independently-published books from T.R. Ragan and A.K. Alexander. Other popular Kindle-exclusive books include Kurt Vonnegut’s new Kindle Single “Basic Training” and Stephen Covey’s groundbreaking business book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

With ostensibly lower production costs and a rich vein of backlist titles to mine, it may have been inevitable that e-book publishers would leverage the advantages of their medium to 
offer authors a higher percentage roy-alty rate for their works. This did not make it any less of a jolt when celebrity 
author Stephen Covey signed a digital rights deal with e-book publisher RosettaBooks, garnering him more than half of net proceeds for e-book sales of two of his older backlist books, including the famous "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," which would be sold exclusively through Amazon.com for one year. (Covey's print books are published by Simon & Schuster, which released a statement reflecting its position that e-book versions of the company's print titles should remain part of the company's catalog.)

You may have heard by now about author Stephen Covey's deal with Amazon, selling the exclusive electronic rights (via e-book publisher Rosetta Books and for a one-year period) to two of his titles, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and "Principle-Centered Leadership." You also may have heard (or been a voice among) the resounding, collective industry gasp.

Amazon and FranklinCovey Co. announced that electronic versions of business author Stephen Covey's best-selling books, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and "Principle-Centered Leadership," are now available exclusively in the Amazon Kindle Store for $7.99. Longtime best-seller "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" has helped make Covey Amazon.com's 13th best-selling author of all time.

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