Quote:
Originally Posted by crossi
They are refusing to warehouse their physical books without a signed contract. . . .
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Is this post a reply to me? It doesn't seem responsive to the post of mine you generously quoted. However, as you may suspect, I don't fully agree with what you posted in #66, so I hope can be forgiven for replying in that spirit.
As for your sentence quoted above: You are likely correct as to what Amazon was doing, months ago, for most (never all) Hachette titles. But, lately, I see Amazon, while not treating Hachette like the other publishers, guaranteeing delivery of most popular Hachette titles, to Prime customers, in two business days. How can Amazon do this without warehousing? They can't, so they must be warehousing
I just checked, at Amazon.com, what Hachette lists as its top six USA Today bestsellers as of September 18:
http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books/bestsellers/
Only one I notice as having paper copy delays listed at Amazon.com, that being
Mean Streak. The delay listed is 1 - 3 weeks, which is a lot less than some of Amazon's listed delays a few months ago, but is still longer than the time it take for a wholesaler to deliver an out-of-stock paper book to an independent bookstore.
So what's different about
Mean Streak?
It would just be guessing to answer that interesting question, so I won't harp on that.* But it's no guess that the idea Amazon is "refusing to warehouse their physical books without a signed contract" has never been true for every Hachette title, and now only is the case in special situations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by crossi
Amazon isn't REFUSING to sell Hachette ebooks. Without a signed contract they have no right to do so.
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Amazon has never stopped selling Hachette eBooks. Given this background, your statement seems an inadvertent accusation of Amazon lawbreaking.
As far as I can tell, booksellers no more need a contract with the the hundreds of publishers to buy eBooks than they do to buy hardcovers. Wholesalers are in business to shield independent booksellers, and Amazon if it wishes, from that complexity.
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* My guess is that it has something to do with a combination of the release date and the non-political nature of the content. The motive would be reduce the chances of Hachette books becoming bestsellers while avoiding the ire of right (or, if they still exist, left) wing radio hosts. Just a guess.