Book publisher Random House Inc will start adopting the agency model for e-book sales in the United States from Tuesday, March 1.

It means Random House, the world’s leading English-language publisher, will now set its own prices for e-books and will give retailers a commission on each sale.

Under the agency model, the price-tags for e-books are set by publishers, while normally 30 per cent of the revenue goes to the retailers.

Stuart Applebaum, a spokesperson for Random House, said that the adoption of agency model would provide a boost to the volume of their e-book sales.

Speaking on the topic, Stuart Applebaum said, “We hope to increase the volume of our e-book sales and broaden the digital reading experience for consumers.”

Formerly, Random House sold e-book titles to retailers at a wholesale price. The retailers used to inflate the prices to get a margin on the wholesale prices.

The adoption of agency model will now enable Random House join Apple’s iTunes iBookstore. By adopting the agency model, the publisher can now split its revenue with Apple in a ratio of 70:30.