Hachette Book Group and Amazon are at a standstill with how to share the profits from books. The two companies are working to figure out terms for their contract on selling e-books. Amazon released a statement on Tuesday saying that, “we are currently buying (less) inventory and “safety stock” on titles from publisher, Hachette, than we ordinarily do, and are no longer taking pre-orders on titles whose publication dates are in the future.” This post was made under the Kindle forum to keep customers updated.
The problem started when Amazon and Hachette were negotiating the terms of their contract, and Amazon wanted to take an extra fee, referred to as a “co-op promotional fee”, on top of the 30 percent they would receive from selling the book through their company.
Users of the popular online shopping website will continue to have issues pre-ordering books from this company until the contract is figured out, because the option to do so has been taken away.
There are concerns that there will be a decrease in the amount of books available to order. If this keeps up, Amazon users might be driven to use other forms of electronic book ordering such as iBooks through Apple and Barnes & Noble.
Until things are solved, books that come out in the time being, such as J.K. Rowlings The Silk Worm, will suffer if users aren’t able to buy them. The first week a book goes on sale is crucial because it shows publishers how well the book is expected to do.
Amazon is a large supplier of e-books, and they told their customers in case they are in need of some o the affected titles, “we regret the inconvenience and encourage you to purchase a new or used version from one of our third-party sellers or from one of our competitors.”
Hachette hasn’t been as vocal about what is going on between that has formed over contract, but it seems that neither side is willing to budge on the issue just yet.
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