The traditional publishing industry was dealt another blow by the digital winds of change this week when top business author Stephen R. Covey signed an exclusive deal with e-book retailer Amazon. The fear among traditional book publishers is that they will grow irrelevant as top authors ink deals with e-book retailers, bypassing them altogether.

The New York Times reports Kindle maker Amazon will have exclusive rights to several of Covey’s books, in a move that could set apart its online book store from other competitors’.

Covey is one of the most successful business authors of the last two decades, and several of his books (like “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and “Principle-Cantered Leadership”) will be sold exclusively though the Amazon e-book store, and also on Kindle devices for a year.

The exclusive deal has two main ramifications: firstly, it confirms the continuous rise of the electronic book market and the fears of publishing houses, which are bypassed by big-name authors, in search of a bigger cut of the sales profits. Also, exclusive author and book deals for the Kindle will easily set apart Amazon’s e-book reader from fierce competition from the likes of Barnes & Noble and Sony.

Read the full story on PC World.

Tags: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Business, E-book, New York Times, Publishing, Sony, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

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