Amazon and Hachette feud could rewrite the book on publishing

The Ebook price row has the potential to create irreversible changes to the literary world and its business modelsThe battle between Amazon and the French publisher Hachette is not just a spat about the price of books. Their row over ebook prices, which led to the online retailer freezing out pre-orders of Hachette books and has provoked angry words from authors such as Donna Tartt and Phillip Pullman, could determine the next chapter of the publishing industry.On one side is "the everything store" that sold $75bn (£45bn) of goods online last year, from toothbrushes to tents and is estimated to sell 90% of ebooks in Britain. On the other is one of the world's biggest publishers, whose parent company, French conglomerate Lagardère, earned 7.2bn (£5.8bn) last year from its print and broadcasting empire. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]

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