The recent conflict between Amazon and Hachette has revived concerns about Amazon's influence over the rapidly growing e-book industry.
Amazon and Hachette are locked in tough negotiations over the terms under which Hachette's e-books can be sold through the online retail website. Hachette Book Group is a leading trade publisher based in New York and is a division of Hachette Livre, the third-largest trade and educational publisher in the world.
Amazon has blocked pre-orders for e-books that are soon to be released by the publisher, which hurts the chances of these e-books from becoming bestsellers.
Two of the titles affected by this move by Amazon include "The Silkworm," a Cormoran Strike novel by J.K. Rowling, under the pen name Robert Galbraith, and the paperback edition of "The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon," by Brad Stone.
Amazon has already been recently accused of bullying Hachette, using several different tactics to force the publisher to provide the retailer with better terms. These tactics include lower discounts for books by Hachette, longer shipping times for books even though they are in stock, and aggressive recommendations of books by other publishers.
"Please know that we are doing everything in our power to find a solution to this difficult situation, one that best serves our authors and their work, and that preserves our ability to survive and thrive as a strong and author-centric publishing company," said Michael Pietsch, Hachette chief executive, in a letter that he sent to authors this week.
Authors commenting on the issue have criticized Amazon for corporate bullying, as the company's tactics are causing Hachette to pay a big price over the months that this feud has been going on.
The biggest problem about the situation is that a huge part of total book sales come from Amazon, with reports saying that the company controls one-third of sales in the industry. As such, these tactics will have a very negative effect on Hachette.
"What this really does for us is highlight what we've been complaining about for a long time about Amazon," said Hicklebee's bookstore in San Jose manager Amy Seaton.
"It's these kinds of tactics that rankle all of us. They're not a team player and we're in a community that's used to helping each other out."
The feud with Hachette is not the first time that Amazon is using tactics to intimidate a publisher into giving it better terms. In 2010, Amazon temporarily removed books that are published by MacMillan from its listings because of disagreements over the prices of the e-books.
