Billy Ray Cyrus Amazon Deal: Singer Signs With Amazon For New Book

NEW YORK — Billy Ray Cyrus is the latest celebrity to sign up with Amazon.com

The singer of "Achy Breaky Heart" and father and former co-star of Miley Cyrus has a memoir, "Hillbilly Heart," coming in spring 2013.

Amazon.com, which has been aggressively expanding its publishing operation, announced Thursday that Cyrus would discuss with "great candor" everything from his early years to life as the parent of a teen superstar. Cyrus and his daughter starred together in the hit TV series "Hannah Montana."

Others with Amazon deals include actress-director Penny Marshall and actor James Franco. Those books, however, will not be available everywhere. Barnes & Noble Inc. announced earlier this week that it would not stock releases from its rival retailer.

Comments

[AnaM]

05:55 AM on 02/06/2012

LOL!
Literary genius right there.

[insiderinfo]

08:08 PM on 02/05/2012

Amazon has snagged another great writer for its book imprint. New dreck is just like the old dreck.

[walkerhds]

10:57 AM on 02/05/2012

guess who's not on the kid's gravy-train anymore...

[AKish23]

09:44 PM on 02/03/2012

awesome! another great reason to shop at barnes and noble!

[Rhonda S Garcia]

10:36 AM on 02/03/2012

Amazon's tactic appears to be to buy all possible 'best-seller' celebrity books out from under the big 6, while forcing aspiring authors to be exclusive with them or get the sharp end of the stick. Their game plan is clearly to drive the big 6 and all indies out of business, take control of all facets of the publishing industry, and then hold everyone--authors and readers alike--hostage to their bottom line. Yet the government hasn't lifted a finger to investigate what is clearly a huge push to monopolize an entire industry by a hostile and aggressive company. And authors continue to drink the cool-aid because they want desperately to have their books on sale. Just give Amazon time--the instant they have control, all those attractive contracts will be replaced by draconian demands and cheap payments for everyone except celebrities. As for self-published success stories--there won't be any. Your choice will be Amazon or nothing.

[Blarg]

03:56 PM on 02/03/2012

Amazon's whole business model is based on the long tail. If they cut out self-publishing, they would be throwing enormous amounts of money away and violating the very business model that brought them to where they are today.

Not happening.

And aspiring authors aren't forced to be exclusive to Amazon. Only if they want to be in the kindle lending library (for which they are paid for every loan) are they forced to sell only on Amazon. And that is a voluntary program they can withdraw from.

As long as you're asking the government to investigate a company's drive to be successful enough to dominate the marketplace -- how about Apple? Sony? Ford? Toyota? Chevron? Walmart?

Re Amazon trying to buy up as many celebrity books as they can out from under the Big 6 -- maybe that would be a good thing, encouraging traditional publishers to redirect their efforts and promotional machinery toward real writers instead of celebrity dingbats again.

[Rhonda S Garcia]

09:14 PM on 02/03/2012

You mean the business they've been constantly revamping since they were first formed? The one that's set in stone ::grin::

You'd do well to check out what their contracts to authors who want to join their publishing companies look like before you go blessing them with the best of motives.

I never talked about their drive to be successful. I talked about their actions, very real, very hostile and destructions actions. And none of the companies you name--or could name--have anywhere near as much share of their industries as Amazon does of publishing. And that's because the government frowns on that.

Seriously, this is a company that jumps through hoops to avoid paying sales tax and that has never done anything for anyone, anywhere, that they didn't make a mint on. They are about profit, not about helping self-published authors or getting back at the big, bad publishers. The instant they can find a way to make a profit without you, you'll be gone. Witness how swiftly they've dived into the very world they told you to eschew. All of a sudden, they're replacing publishers, even as they claimed they were sticking it to you. Those celebrity writers? That's who Amazon's really after.

You might want to believe they're 'with' authors in their imagined fight to bring sure-fire bestsellers to the masses who can't live without them, but I know a slick guy who's trying to sell me a bridge in Brooklyn when I see him.

[tulsey]

02:35 AM on 02/03/2012

It's hard for a pimp.

[PatA]

12:03 AM on 02/04/2012

hahahahahaha bulls eye!