Origami Unicorn

Mexican Standoff

Talking at the BEA

Publishers Weekly reports on the BEA, Book Expo America, where not surprisingly, Amazon vs. Hachette was a big topic.

Although the major houses were reticent about the public battle between the publisher and the online retail giant, other attendees had a few choice words about the situation.

Amazon Affects Authors

The Bookseller reports on Hatchette's observation that Amazon's tactics affect authors.

Amazon took to its Kindle forum on Tuesday (27th May) to say that it was “not optimistic” that its dispute with Hachette would be resolved soon but that it had offered to contribute to a financial "author pool" to help “mitigate the impact of this dispute on author royalties”.

Given no one is planning on yielding, it's hard to see how this going to end.

Seven Months and Counting

Publishers Weekly reports on on the Amazon-Hachette dispute.

Amazon acknowledges that it is buying less print inventory and "safety stock" on titles from Hachette than normal and that it is no longer taking pre-orders.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, where it is business as usual so far, The Bookseller considers what's going on.

[Amazon] described negotiating with suppliers for acceptable terms as "an essential business practice that is critical to keeping service and value high for customers in the medium and long term", saying: “When we negotiate with suppliers, we are doing so on behalf of customers."

Hachette US Vs. Amazon US

Nobody's budging. Publishers Weekly goes into some detail on that.

In a statement from the US company, reported by the Los Angeles Times, HBG spokeswoman Sophie Cottrell said: "We are doing everything in our power to find a solution to this difficult situation, one that best serves our authors and their work, and that preserves our ability to survive and thrive as a strong and author-centric publishing company."

Nobody can afford to budge.

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They're not getting fonder of one another. The Digital Reader points out the dispute has been going on for a while. Publishers Weekly reports on the latest skirmish, damaging to authors. The Bookseller comments on the escalation, which means many soon to be released books cannot be preordered and may not appear on Amazon at all.

Instead of the option to pre-order, certain major titles are listed as “currently unavailable”, with customers offered the option of signing up to be emailed when the book is available. Physical editions of J K Rowling’s next Galbraith novel, The Silkworm, out in the US on 19th June, and Tom Rob Smith’s The Farm, released in the US on 3rd June, are among the many titles affected by the removal of the pre-order option on the Amazon US site today.

Metamorphosis