Horror master Dean Koontz signs with Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint (book news).

Amazon has signed horror author Dean Koontz for a five-book deal and a collection of six short thrillers.

Thomas & Mercer will publish the first book, Devoted, next spring, and Nameless, the short thriller collection, will be available from Amazon Original Stories for free to Prime and Kindle Unlimited customers on November 12th 2019.

This is a fairly major move by a big name and shows the growing power of Amazon in the market, dominating the book space and selling the majority of print and audio books for the remaining legacy publishing industry.

“For many years, I have enjoyed a wonderful relationship with Brilliance Audio, an Amazon company, and later with Amazon Original Stories,” Dean Koontz laughed to SFcrowsnest. “Although there were numerous options for the future, it was most natural to sign with the team at Amazon Publishing, which presented a marketing and publicity plan smarter and more ambitious than anything I’d ever seen before. This new arrangement is so exciting, I’ve been creatively rejuvenated. The times are changing, and it’s invigorating to be where change is understood and embraced.”

“We are honored Dean has chosen Amazon Publishing to bring his newest work to readers,” Mikyla Bruder, Publisher of Amazon Publishing, told SFcrowsnest. “Building on the success of Dean’s Amazon Charts best-selling short story, Ricochet Joe, our first publication together, we’re excited to expand our relationship with five new books from Thomas & Mercer and an episodic collection of short thrillers from Amazon Original Stories, delivering the kind of exhilarating and deeply resonant suspense his millions of fans expect and we know new readers will love.”

Amazon Publishing Editorial Director Grace Doyle acquired North American rights in the five-book deal for the mystery, thriller, and true crime imprint, Thomas & Mercer, and Editorial Director Julia Sommerfeld acquired World English in the collection deal for the digital and audio-only imprint, Amazon Original Stories.

Koontz’s Nameless collection features six short thrillers following a mysterious amnesiac vigilante called Nameless, who travels from town to town, dispensing justice when the law fails. Directed by a shadowy, powerful organization and driven by splintered visions of the past and future, he’s headed toward the ultimate confrontation—with his own past.