Ebooks sold exclusively via Amazon

People in the literature industry are divided after one agent has created a new publishing venture, making some ebooks available exclusively through Amazon.

Andrew Wylie set up his new firm, which will produce 20 ebooks by authors including Philip Roth, Martin Amis and Vladimir Nabokov, for Amazon's Kindle reader for two years.

However, publishing firm Random House US has disputed the new deal, claiming that it goes against the company's publishing agreements with the paper editions of the titles.

Waterstone's also showed disappointment with the move.

David Kohn, head of e-commerce at the store, told the Bookseller: 'It's incredibly important to the health and growth of the e-book market that our biggest and most important writers are available to download, and it is very disappointing to see that some of our best writers' work is to be only available in such a limited fashion.'

Earlier this month Tom Holland, chair of the Society of Authors, encouraged authors to push for higher royalties for ebook publishing, saying current deals are 'not remotely fair'.