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Tech

The Amazon-Hachette E-Book War Has Turned Weirdly Public

Rather than hash things out in a boardroom, both sides are recruiting hearts and minds.
Image: Shutterstock

If you hadn't heard of Amazon's e-book pricing scuffle with publisher Hachette before the weekend, you probably have now. What started as a business dispute—usually rather boring affairs for suits to discuss in closed rooms—has escalated into a very public mud-slinging match. And like a playground brawl, it's impossible to take your eyes away from.

Amazon made a highly visible move on Saturday, when the company sent out an email to all of its Kindle Direct Publishing mailing list. (I once published an e-book through Amazon's Kindle Singles, and therefore received the email.) It's also available publicly at Amazon's new site readersunited.com.

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It's tempting to do a line-by-line commentary on the strangely propaganda-y mailer, from the terrifically twisted Orwell quote to the plea for readers to directly email Hachette's CEO Michael Pietsch, but I'll stick to the highlights.

The gist of the story, according to Amazon at least, is that it is the revolutionary upstart bringing bookselling into the 21st century, and Hachette is an old-fashioned curmudgeon standing in the way of progress. Amazon refers to Hachette as "the literary establishment" and "a big US publisher and part of a $10 billion media conglomerate," and I couldn't help but chuckle at the implied suggestion that Amazon, of all mega-corporations, is trying to paint another company as "the man." This fight isn't a David and Goliath battle, and if it were, I know which character I'd equate Amazon with.

Amazon then tries to align itself with the readers, and dishes up the dirt on Hachette, noting that the publisher has previously been caught colluding on e-book prices. Amazon thinks that's "highly disrespectful to Hachette's readers."

It is, but pointing to a company's past wrongs is a bold step when your own corporation is under scrutiny for controversial (and perhaps even "disrespectful"?) practices like preventing customers from pre-ordering Hachette books. Amazon's attempt to present itself as the selfless crusader fighting on behalf of the broader public just doesn't ring true.

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Screenshot from Amazon's site readersunited.com

This is where Hachette has the PR trump card, because the main battle cry against Amazon this weekend came not from the company itself, but from some 900 authors, many of them much-loved names, in an ad they paid for and printed in the New York Times. The writers don't expressly come out in favour of Hachette, but against Amazon's practices of targeting books published by the house.

"As writers—most of us not published by Hachette—we feel strongly that no bookseller should block the sale of books or otherwise prevent or discourage customers from ordering or receiving the books they want," they wrote. "It is not right for Amazon to single out a group of authors, who are not involved in the dispute, for selective retaliation."

As a result, "Authors United"—the name these writers have given themselves—comes across as a lot more convincing and less forced than Amazon's attempt to claim "Readers United" for their cause.

Hachette also responded to Amazon's email, publishing a note from Pietsch that requested Amazon "to withdraw the sanctions against Hachette's authors that they have unilaterally imposed, and restore their books to normal levels of availability" and insisted the publishing company is "negotiating in good faith."

In the war of words, the actual crux of the matter—the cost of e-books—gets somewhat lost. Amazon's email quotes the figures it's used before, which suggest that cheaper e-books sell more copies and are generally better for readers, authors, and publishers.

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Those figures have been brought into question: Farhad Manjoo at the New York Times points out that cheaper prices may result in more sales for well-known books, but not necessarily for more specialist or less well-known titles. It's also interesting Amazon's email highlights that "there is no secondary market" for e-books, given that the company itself has a patent for "used e-books."

This is one reason it's difficult to know where exactly to stand in the price war: We're still figuring out how e-books fit into the established publishing world we're so used to. Like most readers of a frugal disposition, I'd of course appreciate cheaper e-books. But like most writers, I'm also concerned about maintaining a fair cut for authors.

There's certainly the question of why Amazon should have any say in how Hachette prices its e-books—but that kind of reasoning in turn raises the question of why Amazon shouldn't be free to block purchases of books it doesn't want to sell, which has raised so much ire.

It's not a clear-cut issue, and that's perhaps why all parties involved are so keen to make it seem like one. The PR battle may just be the thing to force one party to compromise and make a statement on how e-books should be treated as we move forward.

I'm giving this one to team Hachette. But observers reckon the dispute could still have many months in it, and Amazon signed this latest paper missile off with a vow that, "We will never give up our fight for reasonable e-book prices." Bring on the next round.