Their book covers are ubiquitous; the kind of thing you see in airports, at the fronts of bookstores, and in gift shops.

But now, new books by prolific authors Dean Koontz and Patricia Cornwell will likely not appear in stores at all. That’s because Amazon has brokered deals with both top-selling writers, whose contracts expired with their respective publishers. According to a recent piece from the Wall Street Journal, it’s a somewhat surprising move given that bookstores often boycott titles published by Amazon, as the tech giant has steadily edged out retail competition. Traditional publishers have expressed concern about how the continued loss of blockbuster writers could impact them and the industry as a whole. Although Amazon's book  distribution is largely digital and in-house, it can offer top dollar and promising marketing tools to authors for their work. Today on AirTalk, we look at how Amazon could impact the publishing industry. 

An Amazon spokesperson was not available to comment or join for an interview.

Guests:

Blake Montgomery, tech reporter at the Daily Beast; he tweets

Mike Shatzkin, book industry analyst and founder of the publishing consulting firm, The Idea Logical Company