i have to say i'm disappointed with amazon, as it seems to be using kind of clearchannel thuggish tactics with respect to the marketing of books.

i just don't think the world - let alone the publishing industry - will be a better place if/when amazon corners the market like they seem to be trying to do. i used to be a fan of amazon, but not any more. i know the industry has to change and keep up with the times, but must we have the walmart syndrome in the arts too?

http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/05/news/companies/colbert-amazon/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

For Stephen Colbert, the Amazon-Hachette feud is getting personal.

Colbert took time Wednesday night on his Comedy Central show to say he was angry at Amazon for "deterring customers" from buying his books.

The comedian offered viewers stickers saying "I didn't buy it on Amazon" that they can download from his site.

Related: Amazon-Hachette feud: No end in sight

Colbert, whose publisher is Hachette, took Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) to task for what Hachette has said is Amazon's slow restocking of some of its books. Hachette says it'scausing "available in 2-4... to appear on titles by Colbert, Malcolm Gladwell, novelist James Patterson, and others.

Some of Hachette's books have been listed as "out of stock", and recently Amazon removed preorder capabilities for some books, according to Hachette.

Amazon has reportedly been pressuring Hachette to let it lower prices for e-books and ultimately pay Hachette less for them. Hachette has resisted.

In statement last week about the apparent log-jam Amazon said, "Unfortunately, despite much work from both sides, we have been unable to reach mutually-acceptable agreement on terms."

Related: 8 books Amazon is making it hard to buy

And it doesn't seem like there's an end in sight to the tiff.

Colbert a safe choice to replace Letterman

Amazon raised eyebrows last week saying that if customers are inconvenienced by its battle with the book publisher, they should buy Hachette's books elsewhere.

Related: The future of media with Brian Stelter

Amazon is the biggest name in book selling and sets the tone for book sales and publishers. Since Amazon is so powerful, publishers often have little choice but to accept Amazon's terms.

First Published: June 5, 2014: 1:46 PM ET

he's one sexy, slick, smooth mf

he's super smart and funny. i love his work

XxAxX said:

he's super smart and funny. i love his work

he's hella cool...

and i saw this last night on his show.

amazon is now a conglomerant (sp)

but i do love their convenience.

hope none of my books are published

with the company their blockin...

I NEED MY BOOKS FAST!!!

XxAxX said:

he's super smart and funny. i love his work

HURRYUP AND COIN THAT "WALMART SYNDROME"

I LOVE IT!!!

^ it's totally what's happening to our culture, innit? not just on an economic level, where the cheapest goods dominate the market and bring down the level of skill that goes into the creation of those goods, but in terms of artistry too. we are witnessing the mass marketing of culture and product, geared to the masses. no more individualism, no more stand alonism, and god help you if you aren't into what the masses want.

[Edited 6/6/14 16:28pm]

XxAxX said:

^ it's totally what's happening to our culture, innit? not just on an economic level, where the cheapest goods dominate the market and bring down the level of skill that goes into the creation of those goods, but in terms of artistry too. we are witnessing the mass marketing of culture and product, geared to the masses. no more individualism, no more stand alonism, and god help you if you aren't into what the masses want.

[Edited 6/6/14 16:28pm]

You could also call it Mcdonald's syndrome.

JoeTyler said:

he's one sexy, slick, smooth mf

Yes he is! Yes he is!

i know it's almost impossible to boycott amazon, but it is worth a try beause this is a really important moment. the distributor should NOT be able to control the art

Latest victim of Amazon-Hachette fight: J.K. Rowling

http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/19/media/amazon-hachette-jkrowling/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Try pointing the Amazon Fire phone at J.K. Rowling's new novel "The Silkworm," and see what happens.

The phone's cameras recognize millions of products and allow people to place orders with the click of a button through Amazon's sprawling online store. But the promise of instant gratification is at odds with Amazon's battle with Hachette, publisher of "The Silkworm" and thousands of other books.

"The Silkworm," released Thursday, is expected to be one of the best-selling books of the year. Rowling, best known for the "Harry Potter" series, wrote it under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The book is a sequel to "The Cuckoo's Calling," the No. 3 adult book onAmazon (AMZN, Tech30) last year.

But "The Silkworm" is being hindered by the online retailer. Instead of being available in one to two days, as most new books are, Amazon says the hardcover edition "usually ships within 1 to 2 months." The e-book edition is not available at all.

"The Silkworm" is one of the most visible victims of the ongoing dispute between A...d Hachette, which is believed to be about terms for e-book sales.

Some Hachette books have suffered from lengthy shipping delays while others (including, full disclosure here, a book I wrote) have been stripped of the discounts that customers have come to expect from Amazon.

Related: 8 books Amazon is making it hard to buy

Hachette has asserted that it is working on behalf of authors to reach an agreement that "preserves our ability to survive and thrive as a strong and author-centric publishing company."

Amazon delays book about CEO Bezos

Amazon has portrayed the dispute as a common part of the supplier-retailer relationship.

"When we negotiate with suppliers, we are doing so on behalf of customers," Amazon said in late May. "Negotiating for acceptable terms is an essential business practice that is critical to keeping service and value high for customers in the medium and long term."

Related: Amazon stabbed me in the back

"The Silkworm" is arguably Hachette's biggest book release since the Amazon dispute started. It comes one day after Amazon's unveiling of the Fire, a phone that will go on sale in July.

The book was available for print and e-book pre-orders through Amazon months ago, but the retailer disabled the pre-order button last month. On Thursday morning, some Amazon customers expressed dismay via Twitter that the e-book copies they had preordered had not been fulfilled by Amazon yet.

Other booksellers have seized on Amazon's treatment of Hachette as an opportunity. Thursday morning, the Barnes & Noble (BKS) website featured "The Silkworm" on its home page; the book page said it "usually ships within 24 hours." Walmart (WMT) has also beenpromoting the book.

On both Walmart's and Barnes & Noble's sites, the hardcover price is $16.80, a 40% discount from its list price of $28. On Amazon, the price is $25.20.

First Published: June 19, 2014: 9:54 AM ET

even the mafioso style distributor amazon caves to pressure from the masses, apparently, which is good news:

http://shelf-life.ew.com/2014/06/20/on-the-books-amazon-faces-criticism-for-limited-availability-of-j-k-rowlings-new-novel/?hpt=hp_t4

On the Books: Amazon faces criticism for limited availability of J.K. Rowling's new novel

J.K. Rowling’s The Silkworm, penned under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith, hits shelves today. For weeks, Amazon and Hachette (Rowling’s publisher) have been deadlocked in negotiating the percentages of revenue from ebook sales that go to each company; as a result, Amazon delayed shipping for Hachette books and didn’t allow pre-ordering for some Hachette titles. With The Silkworm, however, they’re bowing to some pressure: After not selling the ebook for The Silkworm when the book was first released, Amazon has received a barrage of negative comments on its site, and has now added the option to buy the ebook. Amazon also initially announced shipping times of 1-2 months, but has since reverted to normal shipping times. The New York Times and Publishers Weekly both report that some chain and independent booksellers anticipate increased demand from customers unable to buy the book on Amazon.

Related

http://shelf-life.ew.com/...escalates/

Salman Rushdie won the PEN Pinter Prize, given annually to a writer who casts an “unflinching, unswerving” gaze on the world and shows a “fierce intellectual determination … to define the real truth of our lives and societies.” The prize, established in 2009 in memory of Nobel-winning British playwright Harold Pinter, has previously been awarded to Hanif Kureishi, Carol Ann Duffy, and Tom Stoppard. “It’s very moving to receive an award named after my friend Harold Pinter,” Rushdie said, “whose literary genius was matched by his passion for social justice.” [The Guardian]

Carmen Balcells, the legendary literary agent who represented Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and many other celebrated Spanish-language authors, is 83. But she isn’t slowing down. She announced a new venture with New York literary agent Andrew Wylie, where they’d share the writers they represent. The details are still unclear, but this is a huge shift for Balcells, who is in many ways responsible for the boom of Latin American literature that started with Márquez in the 1960s. [The New York Times]

Promising bondage, sex, and a shirtless Jamie Dorman, 50 Shades of Grey will surely attract some attention when it hits cinemas. But one notable figure who’s not at all interested is Miami Vice star Don Johnson, whose daughter Dakota Johnson will star in the film as Anastasia Steele.Johnson insists that it’s not because of the sex; he’s just not interested. “I probably will not see it just because it’s not a movie I would see. I’ve never seen The Vampire Diaries, I’ve never seen Twilight,” Johnson told The Telegraph. [The Telegraph]

[Edited 6/22/14 4:26am]