Amazon and HarperCollins agree to a new 'multiyear' publishing deal

Amazon and HarperCollins have reportedly reached an agreement that will keep the publisher's digital and print titles on sale at the world's largest online book retailer for years to come.

The deal, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, is a multiyear agreement that "calls for HarperCollins to set the retail prices of its digital books, with incentives for HarperCollins to provide lower prices to consumers."

The Journal reports the agreement, which was confirmed in a statement by a HarperCollins spokesperson, goes into effect this week.

It would end earlier speculation that the publisher and the retailer were not seeing eye-to-eye amid contract talks, during which HarperCollins reportedly refused to sign on to what Amazon was offering. The contract proposed to the publisher was the same contract recently signed by Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan, Amazon confirmed.

The WSJ suggets the agreement would be a boon for Amazon because it "assures the retailer of a good profit on HarperCollins digital titles." Under what the Journal calls the "agency pricing model," retailers keep about a third of the revenue from an individual sale, while the publisher receives about 70 percent.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.

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