US bookseller Barnes & Noble is to team up with UK retailers to launch its Nook e-reader in Britain in October.

Barnes & Noble, which unveiled its plans yesterday, said it will reveal partnerships with “leader retailers” in the UK at a later date.

The bookseller had been expected to link up with Waterstones. However, the latter reached an agreement in May to sell Amazon’s Kindle in dedicated areas in store from the autumn. The Kindle Fire tablet is also expected to hit Waterstone’s shelves as part of the the deal.

Barnes & Noble will initially make its black and white e-readers, the Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, but not its colour tablet, available to UK shoppers.

Online store Nook.co.uk will initially stock 2.5 million books, newspapers and magazines.

Barnes & Noble runs 691 standalone stores across the US and as well as 647 shops in colleges and universities.

It claims to control around 30% of digital book sales in the US although this figure has been questioned. Earlier this year it revealed plans to launch its online book shop in 10 countries in the next year.

Barnes & Noble chief executive William Lynch said: “We are proud to be able to offer our top-rated line of Nook reading devices and our award-winning digital bookstore to the discerning and highly educated consumers in the UK.”

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