I have never been a fan of Amazon and what I perceive to be its predatory practices. Its status as a bully has made headlines again this past week. In order to persuade Hachette Book Group to agree to unfavorable terms, Amazon ceased taking pre-orders for their books, delayed delivery times and stopped including Hachette books in its recommendation algorithm. As it has done with other publishers, Amazon is attempting to strong arm Hachette into an unfair deal. Allison at The Book Wheel has done an excellent job of outlining the problem and starting the hashtag campaign, #ReadHachette.
So let’s say you want to support Hachette, what should you do? Buy a Hachette book from your local independent bookstore, chain or online retailer other than Amazon. Here are some of my favorite books published by Hachette.
A petition has also been started by Jennifer at Book-alicious Mama.
52 books or bust 
Nice post…
Great post, I have to respect someones opinion if they call Tigers in Red Weather a favourite
That puts me on the list! I named it the best book of summer the year it came out 🙂
Yes to The Goldfinch! And all of Daniel Woodrell’s books. David Sedaris. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent…
I’ve not read Daniel Woodrell. Will have to look into that. And thx for RT.
I don’t know that I agree with the idea that two businesses having a dispute over terms constitutes bullying, but I do disagree with the way Amazon has treated the books from this house. Casual readers aren’t going to know about what is happening on the business side and make assumptions about the books being available. It’s shady business, to be sure.
I may have been over zealous in my use of bullying. But the fact remains that Amazon treats book publishers much differently than traditional book retailers, including Walmart, Costco and grocery stores. I admit that the book biz has always been reluctant to change and maybe this is just another symptom of that. Also, all my first hand knowledge comes from Canada on both the bookstore and publisher sides.
That’s funny. I still have The Luminaries and The Goldfinch on my recommendations list in Amazon. Maybe those books are too high profile for them to ignore? It might be better to focus on some of the smaller Hatchette books.
Curious, how do we know they have deliberately left out books from the recommendation algorithm? Or they are delaying pre-orders based on the publisher? Is there some statement put out?
These are accusations the publisher is levelling at them.
Aah, I just went to the ReadHachette blog and here’s the list of books affected:
http://www.thebookwheelblog.com/affected-readhachette-titles/
Makes sense, I am surprised that Robert Galbraith’s The Silkworm is not on my recommendations.
THANK YOU FOR SHARING!
Great post. Hatchette publishes so many great titles that this whole thing has been a PR nightmare for Amazon.
Can you imagine not being able to find those great books included in your list above or being told to find something else to read?! But it is very, very easy to purchase your books anywhere else than Amazon. I just scratch my head in wonder why they would pick these battles – in the end it kind of works for free PR for Hachette. (Maybe it’s all some weird conspiracy??) 😉
I realize very few agree, but Amazon is just not a good thing. Though I suspect they’ll lose to the bully, I respect Hachette taking a stand and will continue to do my part as I’ve never bought a book from Amazon and never will. -Tania
I’m beginning to realize that Canadians in general take a much harsher stance towards Amazon than Americans or even people in the UK. Since I’ve moved to Scotland I have used Amazon, but never to buy books. That seems unimaginable to me. But then, I’m not a kindle user either.