Hachette accuses Amazon of delaying book deliveries

12 May 2014 Books+Publishing

Hachette US has accused Amazon of ‘discouraging’ customers from buying its books by delaying delivery, reports Publishers Weekly. According to a New York Times report published on 8 May, Amazon is listing some Hachette books on its website as unavailable for a period of two to five weeks, although ‘most popular books are available from Amazon within two days’. Publishers Weekly reports that Hachette released a statement saying there are ‘legitimate questions about why many of our books are at present marked out of stock with relatively long estimated shipping times on the Amazon website, in contrast to immediate availability on other websites and in stores’, and that Amazon is delaying delivery ‘for reasons of their own’. According to Publishers Weekly, these reasons ‘are likely demands the retailer is making on Hachette in its annual renegotiation of sales terms, seeking a variety of ways to squeeze more revenue from the publisher’. Books affected include James Patterson’s Alex Cross, Run and Stephen Colbert’s America Again (both Grand Central). Amazon has declined to comment.

Category: International news