Image courtesy of Gizmodo

No sooner does Apple make its January 27 media event official yesterday then a major publisher appears ready to cut a deal with Apple to bring electronic books to the rumored tablet.

The Wall Street Journal has a report out detailing the ongoing negotiations between HarperCollins Publishers and Apple, with the ultimate goal to bring e-books to the fabled tablet computer. Such a deal is expected to be a thorn in the side of currently reigning e-book seller Amazon.com and their KIndle reader, which is already seeing increasing competition from a wide range of devices previewed at CES earlier this month.

Of course, HarperCollins is likely not the only publisher meeting with Apple, assuming the tablet will actually see the light of day next week as anticipated. Since Apple’s iTunes Store already offers music, TV shows, movies and audiobooks, e-books would be the next logical piece of the technological puzzle for Cupertino.

HarperCollins, a division of News Corp., is planning to soup up their e-books with enhanced content such as video, author interviews and social-networking applications in an effort to command higher retail prices than current e-books. Amazon virtually created the e-book market over two years ago with the Kindle, and quickly established a going rate of $9.99 for most best sellers from the big publishers. HarperCollins is aiming for $14.99 to $19.99 for such “enhanced” e-books.

Major publishers, including HarperCollins, have already attempted to curb lower-priced best sellers by delaying the release of e-book versions in an effort to get more potential buyers for the traditional print editions. One advantage of the enhanced e-book would likely be day-and-date releases with the hardcover edition for new titles.

Publishers of all shapes & sizes have long lamented their smaller cut of an Amazon e-book sale (most of which goes to Amazon themselves), but with Apple taking only 30 percent of App Store developers’ sales, HarperCollins and others are likely looking to Apple and their tablet to restore the balance in their favor.