|
|
Beginning with the fall semester, Amazon will be the campus bookseller for the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, replacing an on-campus "textbook annex" run by Follett, the Boston Globe reported. A UMass spokesperson said, "This is about convenience and saving money for students."
Under the five-year deal, Amazon is paying UMass a 2.5% commission on most sales through the school's Amazon storefront. Amazon has agreed to pay at least $375,000, $465,000 and $610,000, respectively in the first three years of the contract.
For paper textbooks, Amazon will offer free one-day delivery to addresses on campus and residences in nearby towns. Students can also pick up texts that were ordered online at a campus Amazon facility that will open in June.
Amazon has similar deals with the University of California Davis and Purdue University and is negotiating with other schools.
---
On Sunday night at the Golden Globe awards, Transparent, an Amazon production, won awards for best musical or comedy TV series and for best actor in a musical or comedy series. In accepting the award for best actor, Jeffrey Tambor called Amazon "my new best friend."
On its Facebook page, Skylight Books, Los Angeles, Calif., wrote:
"Congrats to our friend and co-owner Jeffrey Tambor on his Golden Globe award last night! An amazing accomplishment."
---
In other Amazon news, the company grabbed headlines yesterday by announcing a deal with Woody Allen to write and direct his first TV series. Amazon ordered a full season, which is a change from its tradition of having consumers vote on pilots. The series has no name, and Allen himself professed to be baffled about it all. In a statement quoted by the New York Times, he said, "I don't know how I got into this. I have no ideas, and I'm not sure where to begin."