I am not sure I have stated this before, but I love the what the ebook market and it's devices. I am the sort of reader that loves to read multiple books in one span of time. One night, I might read a mystery/thriller. The next, it could be a sci fi or non-fiction novel. Additionally, the ebook reader (I have a Nook) allows me to carry my library of coding and design books that I have amassed in pdf format. I can see graphic novels and comic books migrating to these devices (especially the IPad). So, you can imagine my surprise when I saw this on CrunchGear.

It looks like Andrew Wylie, head of a New York Agency that represents authors, has made a deal with Amazon for exclusive publishing rights to all of his client's material... including paperback distributers. I can't say that I think this is a good deal for anyone. Especially Wylie's clients. Being stuck in only one medium seems quite a bit limiting. Ebook readers may be cutting edge and blah blah blah... but it is still relatively new. And while Amazon is reporting that ebook sales are outpacing hardcover book sales, that is only one retailer. Seems a bit risky to me.

But it was this paragraph that got the wheels turning:

Picture all the e-books that are out there as being in a big pie. Amazon is cutting a piece of the pie out and putting it in their own pan. Pretty soon, the other players will be furiously cutting their own pieces out of the pie and isolating them in their own pans. The end result is a messy and fractured marketplace that’s difficult and confusing for consumers to navigate.

What happens if Barnes and Noble and now Apple decide to take a page from Amazon? Am I going to have to buy a Kindle when to read the newest James Patterson or Dean Koontz novel? What happens when a player like Apple decides to start playing hardball and starts to make deals like this one? Apple is already a dominate force in music. It wouldn't be too hard for them to push Amazon and Barnes and Noble out of the market. And now Jobs can point fingers to Amazon and it's bully tactics.

Only time can tell how such a deal will affect the ebook market. My guess is that other deals like this will not surface. I just can't see how the Wylie clients (list here) can make the most money possible when limited to only one medium and publisher. We will see I guess.