I know I just stated on Twitter that I was sick of this topic, but now I am curious.
What is everyone’s thoughts on the current conflict between Amazon & Hachette?
While I am not exactly a fan of some of Amazon’s business practices, this time I think they are right and Hachette is being difficult. Rather than write a long rambling reply that probably only a few people will read, I’ll just post this link to the articles on Techdirt that cover the controversy: https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?company=hachette
In a nutshell, Hachette is stuck in the past where a few big publishers acted as gatekeepers and made most of the money, sometimes screwing the authors while claiming to represent their interests.
Thank you for that link, it was very informative. More so the part where he breaks down the current letter to Amazon that was recently in the news. It was an eye opener and really shows just how misinformed a lot of people are in this conflict.
For anyone who is curious about what got me interested in this topic, it was Mur Lafferty on her podcast ‘I Should Be Writing’ where she talked briefly (VERY briefly) about the conflict. I had heard about it prior on ‘Dead Robots Society’ when Paul E Couly talked about it, but Mur’s statements on her blog came across as extremely misinformed and very one sided. (She is a Hachette author and very anti-Amazon it seems)
Thankfully a man named Bill Rogers managed to respond to her episode with a very intelligent reply. http://murverse.com/isbw-330-amazon-vs-hachette-kirsty-logan-interview/#comments
As I’ve posted ad nauseum elsewhere in this forum, the times they’re a changing. While I think it’s unfortunate that Amazon is using strong-arm tactics rather than just allowing evolution to happen at it’s own pace, I can also respect that they’ve been the primary agent of change. They created the Kindle and the modern e-book market with it, after all, and it’s their effort and investment that everyone else is essentially riding for free.
So, yeah. I’m pretty much on Amazon’s side save that I wish they were playing nicer. Besides, as an author Amazon has been very, very good to me so I know their model works.
David Farland has a fairly balanced article on this topic:
http://davidfarland.com/writing_tips/?a=402
It struck me that he simply points out that Hachette is publisher, and Amazon is really still a bookstore (not a publisher)–so the whole debate is really very odd.
I also know I get a check from Amazon every month with the royalty they promised me. So…that’s that. I don’t know if that adds to the discussion at all, but hey 
Technically Amazon is a publisher, though, and I’m not talking about being a vehicle for self-publishing. For example, Victoria Strauss’ Passion Blue was recently published by Skyscape, one of the Amazon imprints.
I admit I haven’t been following the debate meticulously, partly because life, and partly because despite having things for sale via Amazon, I don’t feel any particular loyalty to them beyond just the marketing necessity of having a presence there (I think my last royalty deposit from Amazon was a grand total of $1.40). Nor do I have any great loyalty to Hachette, not being one of their authors or even just a regular customer buying their books.
That said, I have read through some of what John Scalzi had to say about all of it on his blog, and I think he’s made some good points. (Unfortunately he doesn’t seem to use tags, so I’ll have to come back later with links to particular posts.) Personally, as a principle I feel like publishers should be able to price their books however they want, because they know their own markets and what prices the readers would be willing to pay. But I get the feeling there’s a lot more wrangling over other issues, too, and like I said, I haven’t had much time or energy to invest in the debate, so… shrug To me it seems like Amazon trying to throw their weight around, and I personally didn’t like the tone or feeling of that email they sent out to their KDP authors – it just felt like a smarmy strong-arm tactic from Amazon to get their authors to go white-knight for them.
As far as screwing authors while claiming to represent their interests, I think both publishers and Amazon do well enough with that, and Amazon’s just tired of publishers having the power to do it exclusively. 
Just ran across this, which looks to be helpful for anyone wanting to dig in deeper to both sides: