It used to be so simple. Months before publication, in retail chain head offices up and down the land, publishers and booksellers between them would decide on the range of books that constituted the Christmas bestsellers. Some negotiating, horse trading and promotional spend later, from early October through to 24th December, the books you would see front of store tended to be a permanent fixture. Whether they were selling particularly well or not.

whitefox were recently involved in the publication of an unauthorised biography of chart-topping singer and X-Factor judge Rita Ora. Authors Douglas Wight and Jennifer Wiley came to whitefox while they were deliberating how to publish their book. After researching and writing the book, they were in the unusual situation of securing a serial deal with a national newspaper before they had a publisher in place. They had interest from publishers and a concrete offer but for a variety of reasons the traditional route didn't appeal to them on this occasion. Wight approached whitefox and in a matter of weeks Hot Right Now, A Definitive Biography of Rita Ora was being sold on Amazon and in WHSmiths nationwide.

Yesterday it was reported that Amazon was in the midst of R&D for one of its most radical projects to date. Seemingly expanding the footprint of the brand as far as it will go, the blueprints for the project were unearthed by GeekWire and would make the launch of Kindle, Prime and maybe even Amazon delivery drones pale in comparison. So what is this new top secret project?