Amazon and Hachette Resolve Dispute

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/technology/amazon-hachette-ebook-dispute.html?ref=technology&_r=0

by constantinum • 12 years ago

99 27 12 years ago

nytimes.com

dkopi• 12 years ago

I can't believe they missed the opportunity to title this "Amazon and Hachette bury the hatchet".

Edited: Lots of others haven't. https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+hachette+bury+the+hat...

codecondo• 12 years ago

Difficult to say if I would look at this comment the same way if it wasn't being downvoted so quickly.

melling• 12 years ago

I thought the New York Times tried to avoid puns in their headlines. Can you guess why?

mortenjorck• 12 years ago

I'm surprised it didn't follow their house style, with something like "For Amazon and Hachette, a Resolution".

ajross• 12 years ago

But The Times, they are a-changin'.

general_failure• 12 years ago

Not sure why you are getting downvoted. Come on people, sense of humor and all? If you don't agree, just leave it unvoted.

joshkaufman• 12 years ago

Informed speculation based on the quotes in the article: it appears that Hachette accepted the "incentivized agency" terms that Simon & Schuster agreed to, which is very similar in structure to the terms Amazon offers for Kindle Direct Publishing.

These terms give publishers a strong incentive to keep book prices between certain thresholds (for KDP, higher margins if the price is set between $2.99 and $9.99), but Hachette has the ability to set prices outside of those thresholds as long as they're willing to accept lower margins.

Hachette gets nominal price control, and Amazon gets their preferred pricing because Hachette will get smacked in the pocketbook if they choose to exercise it.

jobu• 12 years ago

If true, that deal actually seems reasonable. Can't believe they couldn't come to that without six months of mudslinging.

Turing_Machine• 12 years ago

Very likely it's the exact same deal that Amazon offered on Day 1.

jawns• 12 years ago

Although it's perfectly understandable, from both entities' point of view, to want the terms of the agreement kept secret ... part of me feels as if they owe it to the public, whom each side marshaled in support of their positions -- Amazon at http://www.readersunited.com and Hachette at http://authorsunited.net -- to let us know what the resolution was.

True, the Times article broadly describes what each side agreed to, but since we don't know how much money changed hands, or what other concessions were involved, we don't really know whether it was a victory for Amazon or Hachette. Both sides say they're satisfied, but there may be gritted teeth.

As an author (though published by one of Hachette's competitors), I sure would like to know whether this agreement will set a painful precedent for other publishers.

gergles• 12 years ago

Hachette gets the ability to set the prices on its e-books, which was a major battleground in the dispute.

Extremely sad. In no other market do we let wholesalers dictate retail prices. Even MAPs don't actually force the sales, they just dictate advertising.

GrinningFool• 12 years ago

On the other hand, in no other market is there effectively only one retailer for a wholesaler's product.

(Yes there are plenty of other readers and ebook software options out there. They don't have the market penetration or mind share that Amazon/Kindle does - Amazon has an effective monopoly here as far as most consumers are concerned.)

nolok• 12 years ago

On the other hand, in no other market is there effectively only one retailer for a wholesaler's product.

Steam for digital games is in the same position. And they're no better than amazon (forcing things on the sellers, usually about sales, and having terrible terms for buyers).

stinkytaco• 12 years ago

This feels like an awful lot of qualifiers ("effective monopoly" "most consumers") to throw around when we're talking about a word that has a very specific definition.

Don't get me wrong, I have no love for either of these parties, they were fighting a battle over who got the right to screw the consumer. However, Amazon is far from a monopoly, even in the book/e-book market.

adestefan• 12 years ago

I just heard on NPR that Amazon only has 40% of the ebook market. That's a far cry from any monopoly position.

dublinben• 12 years ago

In actuality, it is the publishers who have a monopoly on each book that they sell. If Amazon (or any other retailer) wants to sell Amy Poehler's new bestseller Yes Please, they can only buy it from HarperCollins. They can set any wholesale price they want, and no other publisher is allowed to offer a competing price for that book.

adwf• 12 years ago

Glad that's over! Not that it affected me in any way, but the whole debate was starting to feel like some sort of public marital dispute going on in a supermarket, just embarassing to watch.

Both sides took turns claiming they were just looking out for the little guy. Hachette even tried to pretend they were the little guy, instead of part of a huge corporation. They each trotted out their "kids" (authors) to make public opinion sway one way or the other, but eventually both sides were just hurting themselves as it looked so pathetic.

Now we'll just have to wait and see if this actually lowers ebook prices or not.

tw04• 12 years ago

Seems like rather convenient timing for Amazon. Right when the whole Discover Card getting ripped off scandal drops, they suddenly have a big announcement about hatchette to take it's place in the headlines...

Dylan168072• 12 years ago

Ripped off for a couple percent of their yearly ad budget?

jmnicolas• 12 years ago

So if I steal only one dollar in your wallet, it's not really stealing ?

Amazon and Hachette Resolve Dispute

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