Hachette Book Titles Delayed Despite Resolution With Amazon
While the Amazon-Hachette Book Group dispute has reportedly ended, regaining normal service on certain products may still take a bit longer. On Friday afternoon, numerous Hachette titles listed shipping times of up to three weeks or more on Amazon's site.
These books, including James Patterson's "Cross My Heart," J.K. Rowling's "The Casual Vacancy" and "Franny and Zooey" by J.D Salinger.
The publishing house and online retailer announced the multiyear resolution on Thursday. In a joint statement, the companies said "normal trading would resume immediately." However, Hachette spokeswoman Sophie Cottrell said Friday she did not expect books to be fully stocked and available again until next week.
The agreement seemed to be a concession by the e-commerce giant as Hachette secured the right to set its own e-book prices. This point was critical to the ongoing issues between the two companies, as Amazon removed pre-order buttons and cut back on discounts and orders for Hachette releases, hurting the books' sales.
The conflict, which had been going on since January, led Amazon to be cast as the bully for trying to strong arm Hachette into yielding to its digital prices. Many of the group's popular authors called for Amazon to be investigated for antitrust violations.
"Books and publishing need to be preserved if not protected in this country," Patterson, one of Hachette's best-selling novelists, said. "For the moment, this deal helps do that."
Hachette was also hit by the sales during its online standoff, but also by Amazon's questioning of the necessity for publishers at all. The retailer's supporters said that this fourth-largest publisher was outdated in an age where authors can publish their work themselves online.
With this victory, however small for Hachette, Amazon still is not losing much. It controls almost half of the book trade, which is an astounding amount for a single retailer. The dispute also sent the message that it isn't afraid to use this power to control other businesses' sales.
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