[murg]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

It hinges on Amazon's actual current conduct changing back to what it was in 2012, when it was difficult to buy, on Amazon, one of the presidential campaign books:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/1...ng-books/?_r=0

This wasn't a content related event, but collateral damage from Hachette picking a fight with Amazon during contract negotiations.

The books were available from Amazon, it was the publisher that was slow in fulfilling the orders.

So, basically, the publisher decided to make this and other books difficult to purchase on Amazon. They were readily available at other sites, and just as easy to purchase.

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

What about 2016, in the US? Is it likely that Amazon will favor books by certain presidential candidates, out of either political or, more plausibly, profit concerns? I'm saying no. I think they learned their lesson when the Hachette situation gave Amazon so much mainstream media bad publicity

There was no lesson for Amazon to learn. The publisher's distribution system is not their responsibility.

The real question that should be asked here is: did the publisher learn their lesson?

The publicity doesn't seem to have hurt Amazon. And hindsight has shown that the sources of the bad publicity are the people that would be generating bad publicity about Amazon anyways.