Hachette Book Group has published many of my favorite authors over the years – Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, Dan Simmons, Malcolm Gladwell, James Patterson, Alice Hoffman. . .to name a few. You may have read about the contract conflict going on between Hachette and Amazon, with Amazon delaying shipment & increasing prices of most of Hachette’s titles. Hachette released the following statement on May 9th
It is our normal policy not to comment on negotiations underway with any retailer.
However, we have been asked legitimate questions about why many of our books are at present marked out of stock with relatively long estimated shipping times on the Amazon website, in contrast to immediate availability on other websites and in stores.
We are satisfying all Amazon’s orders promptly, and notifying them constantly of forthcoming publicity events and of out-of-stock situations on their website. Amazon is holding minimal stock and restocking some of HBG’s books slowly, causing “available 2-4 weeks” messages, for reasons of their own.
We are grateful for the patience of authors and all Amazon readers as we work to reach an agreement and to encourage Amazon to be back to offering Hachette Book Group’s books within normal shipment times.
In an effort to support the authors who are impacted by this impasse, Allison from The Book Wheel has implemented a Twitter Feed highlighting our favorite Hachette titles. Please join the book blogging community on Twitter and Instagram showing your support as well – you can simply tweet your favorite titles at #ReadHachette or post photos on Instagram of your Hachette books. {here’s a link to the Hachette site with a list of all their books, imprints and authors} Or you can do one even better – purchase a Hachette title from your local independent bookstore, Books-a-Million or Barnes and Noble. For more information about #ReadHachette please visit The Book Wheel. A few articles on the contract dispute are here, here and here.
