Amazon.com’s New York-based publishing business has entered into a deal with Ingram to distribute its e-book titles, opening up the possibility that competitors such as Barnes & Noble, Kobo or Apple could carry the works, paidContent reports.

There’s no guarantee that any of those rivals will actually carry e-books published by Amazon, and paidContent’s Laura Hazard Owen notes that the possibility of Apple selling Amazon’s ebooks “is particularly interesting, given the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Apple and book publishers for allegedly colluding to set ebook prices.”

The move is also surprising because Amazon would have been expected to keep the e-books it publishes exclusive to the Kindle, giving its own e-reader an advantage.

Earlier this year, Barnes & Noble said that it would not carry books published by Amazon.com in its stores, citing what they said was Amazon.com’s “continued push for exclusivity with publishers, agents and the authors they represent.”

Amazon’s New York imprint plans to release titles such as Timothy Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Chef, Penny Marshall’s My Mother Was Nuts and Jessica Valenti’s Why Have Kids?