Online retailer Amazon.com Inc has struck deals with two publishers on the pricing of electronic books, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster and News Corp's HarperCollins will be allowed to set their own prices for e-books under their agreement with Amazon, the report said.

Amazon, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins did not respond to requests for comment.

While some new best sellers will be priced at $9.99, most will be priced at $12.99 to $14.99, the report said. Many older books will cost less than $9.99.

The publishers' deal is similar to the one they reached with Apple Inc for the iPad tablet. Apple is positioning the iPad, which goes on sale on Saturday, as a competitor to Amazon's Kindle e-reader.

Apple will sell e-books for the iPad through its iBookstore application.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

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