Barnes & Noble Stores Won’t Sell Books Published by Amazon

Bookseller Barnes & Noble has announced that the chain will stop selling books in its stores published by Amazon.com.

Barnes & Noble has made a decision not to stock Amazon published titles in our store showrooms, read the statement from Jaime Carey, the Chief Merchandising Officer at Barnes & Noble.

Barnes & Noble reportedly said that Amazon.com had undermined the industry by trying to sign exclusive agreements with publishers, agents and authors. Our decision is based on Amazon's continued push for exclusivity with publishers, agents and the authors they represent that has prohibited us from offering certain eBooks to our customers, the statement added.

With Amazon's Kindle e-reader and Barnes & Noble's Nook, the two firms are already involved in tough competition for the e-book market.

Earlier, Amazon had made a deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which is headquartered in Boston and also has offices in New York, to offer print versions of its books. It was known that this move was unlikely to generate Amazon any goodwill from publishers and booksellers.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Barnes & Noble will continue to sell Amazon-published titles on its Web site.