HarperCollins Negotiating an eBook Deal With Apple For Its Tablet

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One week ahead of their “Come See Our Latest Creation” event that will take place on January 27 and will most likely see the debut of Apple’s most rumored device of the last few months, the Apple tablet (aka the iSlate), we caught wind that book publisher HarperCollins is in serious talks with Cupertino to bring eBook support on their new device.

According to The Wall Street Journal who’re counting their facts on “people familiar with the situation”, if things confirm, HarperCollins Publishings,a unit of News Corp, will set the ebook prices ( and Apple would take a commission from every sale — although we can’t tell for sure if it’s via the iTunes Store or a new service specially setup for that deal.

What’s for sure is that, if it goes through, the HarperCollins x Apple partnership will be a real challenge to Amazon’s position as a top seller in the fast-growing e-book market. However, Brian Murray, CEO at HarperCollins, have said that “e-books enhanced with video, author interviews and social-networking applications could command higher retail prices for publishers than current e-books”. Which is why you may not have your favorite best seller for $9.99 but for $14.99 or $19.99, instead.

Guess we’ll find out more, next week.