Amazon On Its 'War' With Hachette: There's No End In Sight
Over the last few weeks, Hachette has been sounding the alarm about Amazon's pressuring tactics after the e-commerce site removed pre-order buttons on some Hachette books. Amazon also listed unusually long delivery times for other titles.
Amazon's new statement says that it is buying less print inventory and no longer taking pre-orders for new Hachette books because it hasn't been able to reach a "mutually-acceptable agreement on terms" with the supplier, "which is part of a $10 billion media conglomerate."
Amazon argues that negotiating for equitable terms is a critical job for any retailer and ultimately necessary for ensuring low prices for customers. Its decision to stock fewer Hachette books or not to feature them is akin to choices that brick-and-mortar bookstores make everyday. For example, a physical retailer may decide not to feature certain products on an endcap.
Amazon also addresses one of the biggest public backlashes about its decision: That hard-working authors are making less money because Amazon has a problem with their publisher. Amazon says that it will fund 50% of a pool of money to mitigate the impact on authors if Hachette funds the other half.
"We did this with the publisher Macmillan some years ago," the company writes. "We hope Hachette takes us up on it."
Amazon also bluntly states that despite "working hard to come to a resolution as soon as possible," it is not optimistic that the disagreement will come to an end in the near future.
In the meantime, the company encourages customers to purchase Hachette books from either its third-party sellers or even one of its competitors.
Finally, Amazon links to an interesting blog post by a publisher at a small publishing house that it says offers a "wider perspective" than much of the mainstream media coverage, which has largely been very critical of Amazon's tactics.
Martin Shepard, author of the post and publisher at The Permanent Press, writes that Hachette essentially just wants more money and that, despite how the mainstream press might skew it, Amazon is the "very best thing" for independent presses and helps provide an equal playing field for small publishing houses like his.
Here's the full statement from Amazon:
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.