If you care about books, please read and repost this. I’m writing as a frightened author and reader. The short version: The fight between Amazon and Hachette, one of the last major publishers, is getting nastier, and it’s vitally important that publishers win and Amazon lose. I’m asking you not to buy books from Amazon anymore. The longer version: For months, Amazon and Hachette have been battling over contract terms. Amazon, in an effort to win unprecedented concessions, is fighting mean, making it difficult or impossible to buy Hachette books and delaying shipments of those books by weeks. Authors have sided overwhelmingly with Hachette, even when Amazon tried to bribe us with 100% of the profit from e-book sales. The publishing industry is hurting. There are many reasons for this, but one of the big ones is Amazon, which sells over a third of the books Americans buy, far more than any other retailer. Over the years, as Amazon’s power has grown, they’ve used nasty negotiating strategies to squeeze more and more money out of publishers. Publishers aren’t saints; I trust them about as far as I can throw them. But here’s the problem: Authors need food and shelter to write. The less money publishers have, in large part because of Amazon, the less they can pay us. This means that there are books authors can’t afford to write, because we know publishers can’t risk paying us enough for us to live on. Instead, we’re forced to write books we’re less passionate about that publishers think will sell better. Amazon’s tactics are keeping good books from being written. You can learn more at authorsunited.net/, set up by almost a thousand angry authors—most not published by Hachette—such as Donna Tartt, Stephen King, and Philip Pullman. Meanwhile, I encourage you to buy your books from powells/, barnesandnoble/, or even, sakes alive, your local bookstore! You can also email Hachette’s CEO at Michael.Pietsch@hbgusa, ccing readers-united@amazon, and tell him you support him in his efforts to resist bullying.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 13:45:08 +0000
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