Hachettte CEO Responds to Amazon Spam Request

In the US Bronze is on a countdown promotion starting Sunday 14th September 2025 at $0.99 for the eBook, rising to $1.99 on the 17th September before reverting to the full price of $2.99 on the 20th September.  All promotions commence at 8:00 am PDT on the stated days.

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Just over a week ago Amazon astounded the self publishing world by emailing all of their KDP authors with a bizarre call to arms against Hachette, specifically the CEO of the publishing company.  They wanted all of the authors publishing through Amazon to email the Hachette CEO to complain about Hachette's position in its ongoing dispute with Amazon over pricing of ebooks.

Now most Amazon KDP authors are not published by Hachette.  The few who are will know that Amazon are suppressing their books, limiting their sales.  Potentially, if they believe the Amazon stance to be better for them, they could carry out Amazon's request and spam the CEO of the company that has invested in their books.  Edgy tactics for those who have probably striven for years to get that elusive publishing contract.  Pointless for the vast majority who don't have contracts with Hachette and who will probably never get one, may not even want one but for those that do they would probably not want to get the attention of the CEO in such a negative way.

My view, which many readers supported through tweets, is that CEOs shouldn't be inciting customers to spam other CEOs.  Unlike the craze of CEOs challenging other CEOs to pour iced water over their heads for charity this wasn't a one-on-one attack.  It was an attempt to bully the CEO of Hachette using a mob that had no business, in the main, getting involved.

So I wrote to the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos instead.  In part I wrote to ask him to desist from invoking me to do Amazon's dirty work and to be fair, for the last week they haven't.  But the main reason for writing to Mr Bezos instead of Michael Pietsch, CEO of Hachette, was to point out that the competing pricing methods at the heart of the Amazon/Hachette isn't the issue, Amazon's attempt at dominating the ebook industry through KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited is.  I also pointed out that both of those services would benefit greatly by the dropping of the exclusivity clause Amazon insists on.  If you haven't seen my email, which I CC'd to Mr Pietsch out of courtesy, you can read it here.

Unsurprisingly Mr Bezos hasn't replied to my email, however Mr Pietsch did take the time to write me.  To be fair to Mr Pietsch I didn't write specifically supporting his side of the debate, I wrote to point out that Amazon were out of line with their attempt to recruit the KDP authors to do their bidding.  Mr Pietsch attached a letter that he put out after the Amazon email which explains Hachette's side in this saga but added a few words showing that he had taken the time to read my email.  Below is the full email from Mr Pietsch including his reply to all KDP authors, which has already been circulated on the web quite extensively.  It is well argued and worth reading, even for those of us not directly affected by the dispute.  As most of us are consumers as well as authors the outcome of the dispute is important - Hachette's approach may or may not price books higher than Amazon would like, but it gives consumers a choice. Amazon's approach, to gain absolute market dominance, is likely to cost consumers in the long run.

Here's the email:

  Your letter in response to Amazon's "Important Kindle Request"

Thank you for sending me your thoughts about Amazon’s letter to KDP authors.  Below is a note of clarification that I’ve sent to those who passed along Amazon’s complaints, which I thought you might want to see as well.

 

It’s heartening to hear your thoughtful comments.  Thanks again for writing.

 

Yours,

 

Michael Pietsch

CEO, Hachette Book Group

 

Thank you for writing to me in response to Amazon’s email.  I appreciate that you care enough about books to take the time to write.  We usually don’t comment publicly while negotiating, but I’ve received a lot of requests for Hachette’s response to the issues raised by Amazon, and want to reply with a few facts.

·        Hachette sets prices for our books entirely on our own, not in collusion with anyone.

·        We set our ebook prices far below corresponding print book prices, reflecting savings in manufacturing and shipping.

·        More than 80% of the ebooks we publish are priced at $9.99 or lower.

·        Those few priced higher—most at $11.99 and $12.99—are less than half the price of their print versions.

·        Those higher priced ebooks will have lower prices soon, when the paperback version is published.

·        The invention of mass-market paperbacks was great for all because it was not intended to replace hardbacks but to create a new format available later, at a lower price.

As a publisher, we work to bring a variety of great books to readers, in a variety of formats and prices.  We know by experience that there is not one appropriate price for all ebooks, and that all ebooks do not belong in the same $9.99 box.  Unlike retailers, publishers invest heavily in individual books, often for years, before we see any revenue.  We invest in advances against royalties, editing, design, production, marketing, warehousing, shipping, piracy protection, and more.  We recoup these costs from sales of all the versions of the book that we publish—hardcover, paperback, large print, audio, and ebook.  While ebooks do not have the $2-$3 costs of manufacturing, warehousing, and shipping that print books have, their selling price carries a share of all our investments in the book. 

 

This dispute started because Amazon is seeking a lot more profit and even more market share, at the expense of authors, bricks and mortar bookstores, and ourselves.  Both Hachette and Amazon are big businesses and neither should claim a monopoly on enlightenment, but we do believe in a book industry where talent is respected and choice continues to be offered to the reading public.

Once again, we call on Amazon to withdraw the sanctions against Hachette’s authors that they have unilaterally imposed, and restore their books to normal levels of availability.  We are negotiating in good faith.  These punitive actions are not necessary, nor what we would expect from a trusted business partner.

Thank you again and best wishes,

Michael Pietsch

_____________________________________

Michael Pietsch | Chief Executive Officer

237 Park Avenue New York NY 10017

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In the US Bronze is on a countdown promotion starting Sunday 14th September 2025 at $0.99 for the eBook, rising to $1.99 on the 17th September before reverting to the full price of $2.99 on the 20th September.  All promotions commence at 8:00 am PDT on the stated days.

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Amazon picking on Micky Mouse Companies now

Following on from their dispute with Hachette, Amazon are now leaning on other companies that don't follow the rules that Amazon decide are right.  It appears that some Disney DVD titles will not be available for pre-order from Amazon in what is believed to be another dispute over pricing.

Don't get me wrong, I like any move that helps consumers, and if Amazon was battling on behalf of the little man I reckon they'd win a lot of support.  However it looks like Amazon really just wants a bigger slice of the profit margin from every sale - they've pretty much screwed every small to medium sized trader into the ground over the last few years, now it seems the big boys are getting it stuck into them.

In some ways this does benefit you and me: lowered prices should translate into more options with our disposable income.  However the market generally manages this without the assistance of a large corporation, arguably has made Amazon do some of the things it has done.  If they hadn't done their bit, someone else would have.  But there is a real price to be paid for too much aggressiveness in the market - those small traders working on miniscule margins disappear from sight eventually, usually with a backlog of creditors who weren't paid for their last delivery.  Eventually the cost of bankruptcies and other legitimate means of avoiding debts is transferred to the market, which means the we all pay a little more some way along the line to compensate.  So those ridiculously affordable but unnecessary DVDs you bought on Amazon last year may be why you are now paying more for essential goods in ASDA.

The big players are a bit more resistant to Amazon, but they don't underestimate the clout the company has.  Consequently Hachette is being bombarded with spam at Amazon's request - maybe, it seems I was far from alone in resisting that request - and now they are trying to strong-arm Disney.  Here's what I think:

Disney should consider making a movie, about a wicked retailer that tries to distort the market, rolling over the little guys day in, day out.  Then it runs up against the hero who has hitherto shown little interest in the activities of the wicked retailer, even though it sells through him.  A lot, by all accounts in fact. So here is the story arc; the complacent big guy turns into superhero, championing not just their own cause, but that of the little guys too. As the film approaches the dénouement we find the hero locked in mortal combat with the wicked retailer until, just as it looks like the hero has been struck by a mortal blow.... well, I guess you get the idea.  It might have to be PG rated, mind.  In fact, let's make that rating compulsory and insist that all adults watch it.  Including Jeff Bezos. 

In fact, especially Jeff Bezos.

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Amazon look to self published authors to fight their battles

I received an email from Amazon today imploring me to step into their ongoing dispute with Hachette.  I'm not renowned for my diplomacy skills, so I'm guessing mediation wasn't on their agenda.  I'm more of a direct problem solver, willing to roll my sleeves up.  Which sometimes gets a little misinterpreted as aggressive, but there you go.

Anyway, Amazon didn't just email me, they emailed every KDP author as far as I can tell.  They outlined their case for not bowing down to Hachette's pricing policy for ebooks, with the upshot being that they are trying to bring ebook prices down, helping promote sales which, they claim, will help authors realise more royalties.  To that end they have requested every KDP author to email the CEO of Hachette to tell them to back off, or something like that. 

Now Hachette don't publish my books and probably never will.  So their pricing policy is irrelevant to me as an author.  If they want to overprice ebooks it just makes my books look like better value than ever.  Why would I want to meddle with that?  Because of the dispute many Hachette titles are not being stocked by Amazon at the moment, so if I did want to pay over the odds for one of their books I can't buy them from Amazon.  No problem, Amazon are big, but they're not the only option, which is a good thing.  I'll take my business where I need to.

But the real big issues for me are, firstly, that I don't like spam and really don't like being asked to contribute to a spam offensive.  Big companies like Amazon shouldn't be canvassing customers to do this kind of dirty work, surely?  Secondly, I don't think Amazon have got the point that ebook pricing isn't the problem, exclusivity in retail markets is.  And Amazon are trying to tie all ebook authors up to an exclusive deal with themselves through their KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited programmes.

So I did send the CEO of Hachette an email, actually as a cc correspondent,  The main recipient of my email was Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.  I've little faith that Mr Bezos will read my email, CEOs are busy people, but by including the CEO of Hachette in the distribution I'm sure someone at Amazon will read it, to find out what Hachette are being told.  Possibly both CEOs will become aware, briefly, of the email.  It won't change the way either company works, I wouldn't expect it to.  But if it provides Amazon with a moment of reflection on their pursuit of exclusivity then my time will have been well spent.  Here's the email:

Dear Mr Bezos

I'm writing to you partly because one of your minions has undertaken to ask myself and, I'm assuming, every other KDP author to write a letter of complaint to the CEO of Hachette regarding the ongoing dispute between your respective companies. Although I'm cc’ing Mr Pietsch this email out of courtesy I'm not going to send him an email supporting your case for the following reasons:

1. I don't think large companies such as Amazon should be inciting their customers to spam the CEO of other large companies.
2. The dispute is irrelevant to myself and probably 99.999% of KDP authors - Hachette don't publish my books and probably never will. Spamming their CEO is unlikely to increase the likelihood of them choosing to publish me, either. Consequently, as an author, their pricing policy doesn't affect me, although their inflated prices will make my books look a whole lot better value.
3. As a book consumer I'm relatively insulated by your dispute. I'm unlikely to pay their prices for an ebook, but if I decide one is worth it then I will source it from any ebookseller that is selling the book. If your dispute means you won't stock their books, then you just lose a sale to someone else.
4. Hachette and their pricing policy isn't the big problem around ebooks today, Amazon's KDP Select programme is. Your company is trying to become the sole provider of ebooks through exclusive deals with authors, augmented by a brazen attempt to bribe us. Check your records, I've resisted this programme since inception because it is anti-competitive and we all know monopolies are unhealthy. The benefits of Amazon Prime and Kindle Unlimited are obvious enough for consumers, who won't care less whether the books they can borrow through these schemes are exclusive to Amazon or not. In fact, by dropping the requirement for exclusivity you will find you can offer many more books to make your programmes even better at no cost to your company. You would even be able to drop the monthly bribe slush pot, so you would save money while enhancing the attractiveness of Amazon.

I hope you resolve your dispute with Hachette amicably, however please ask your staff to avoid canvassing my support in such matters in future.

Regards

Ray Sullivan

 

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Amazon - profits down, eBooks up

Amazon, the biggest online retailer of them all, has just announced a dramatic drop in profits, down by $80 million for the last quarter compared to the same quarter a year earlier.   It's not for want of trying, though, as they increased their revenues from around $17.5 billion in that quarter a year ago to more than $21 billion this time around, a rise in trading of around 22%.  Jeff Bezos needn't panic, his profits were still nearly $100 million for the three months leading up to Christmas.

 However, this means Amazon are cutting margins aggressively, which given the current market conditions isn't unusual.  And let's face it, $100 million profit in a quarter isn't to be sniffed at.

Jeff has pointed out that one area that is in decline for his business is print books. To be fair, the decline is in the rate of increase - they grew  by 5% in December, which is the slowest growth rate in Amazon's 17 years as a book seller.  In contrast eBooks are growing like mad, up 70% or so on the same quarter the year before.  As Jeff points out, the eBook business has grown from nothing five years ago to a multi billion dollar category for Amazon.

So, with profits like this in such a tough trading environment being relatively buoyant, it should be no surprise that the market reacted positively to Amazon's announcement - I'm guessing the markets have noticed a little bit of tough trading conditions generally.

Jeff was certainly smart enough to realise that eBooks were ripe for the consumer market five years ago - up until then they had been quite niche and the almost blanket avoidance by the mainstream publishing industry helped to keep them that way.  But Jeff helped to take eBooks out of the shadows and into the spotlight, realising that for a major bookseller it is a heck of a sight cheaper to stock millions of electronic book files compared to the miles of racking needed to maintain stocks of physical books.  That and his move into Print on Demand stands to reduce his physical inventory, hence his real estate costs, big time, long term.

So Amazon have helped to create the eBook model that is driving us all forward right now.  They have also realised a long time now that volume sales of any given book isn't necessary as long as they have the lion's share of all the sales - they've eliminated the cost of storage as far as eBooks are concerned, so it doesn't matter if any given book sells well or even at all, in the round the total sales of data over the internet creates the wealth.

Which is why Amazon are pushing the KDP Select program again.  Like all Amazon self published authors I've just received my monthly eNewsletter pushing the program heavily.  Put it this way, if Amazon hadn't decided to incentivise KDP Select then they could have topped the $100 million profit.  On the face of it, KDP Select is pitched as a way of rewarding Amazon Prime customers, itself a vehicle to monopolise the online selling market.  But if it was just that, then Amazon wouldn't need to insist on exclusivity of sales, a concept that is pretty much illegal in most industries.

I worry about the day when Amazon have driven all the other major players off the planet - and Jeff is investing in space flight technology as well, so just being off the planet may not be sufficient in years to come - then how will that affect consumers?  To Amazon, choice is about being able to buy virtually anything through them.  To me, choice is much broader, it's about having different sellers available to pitch their wares.  I can make my purchasing decisions based on price or on service, or on quality.  Or on a thousand different parameters, some tangible, others less so.

Like most of you I buy from Amazon, including eBooks.  But I try to ensure that I don't become a dedicated funding line to Jeff and his empire.  Apart from my purchasing choices I actively resist the KDP Select program.  OK, my attempt to bring Amazon to its eBook knees a little while ago didn't result in a revolution, but did create enough interest to become my fifth most read blog entry ever almost overnight - if you haven't read it, or shared it with someone who might be of a like mind then you can access it here.

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