Sam Oliver
With publishing house Hachette locked in a battle with Amazon that has seen the imprint's titles pulled from Amazon's virtual shelves, Apple's iBookstore has become the next-best place for readers to shop as a number of Hachette e-books are now discounted to just $9.99.
Each of the nearly 30 titles in Apple's $9.99 pre-orders section is from Hachette, and all are currently unavailable from Amazon — though it is not known what relation Apple's move has to the Amazon tiff. The sale was first noticed by Re/code.
Included in the sale are popular upcoming titles by authors including J.K. Rowling and James Patterson, which have become pawns in a dispute over e-book pricing between one of the world's largest publishers and the world's largest seller of books. Many believe Amazon is strong-arming Hachette in hopes of securing a new, more profitable sales agreement following the Department of Justice's dismantling of the agency pricing model that allowed publishers to set e-books prices.
Amazon, for its part, insists that the stalemate is a standard part of negotiations designed to benefit consumers. "Negotiating for acceptable terms is an essential business practice that is critical to keeping service and value high for customers in the medium and long term," the company said in a statement.
Hachette is among the publishers who almost immediately settled following the DoJ's filing of a civil suit alleging antitrust violations. Apple eventually lost that case, though the company is in the midst of an appeal and recently settled a parallel damages-seeking suit brought by a number of state attorneys general.
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40 Comments
So then is Apple paying the differential to Hachette?
But... but... but, Apple doesn't set the price, nor do they sell at or below wholesale.
I think the DOJ needs to look into this. Surely Apple increasing or decreasing any selling price must be breaking some arbitrary law. /s
But wait books are commodities and you should be able to buy the same book from any writer or publisher and everyone should be paying the same price not matter what.
Hatchette should just give in and let Amazon sell their product otherwise they may go to the writer and convince them to sell their book under another publisher, or worse they find their own writers and have them write the same books for them.
Next best?