Compares Hachette dispute to past paperback fears, but partially quoting George Orwell is a risky move
Amazon has hit back following an open letter from more than 900 authors criticising its licensing dispute with publisher Hachette, which was published as an ad in the New York Times.
However, the latest blog post from the Amazon Books Team is raising eyebrows within the publishing industry due to its use of a partial quote from George Orwell in support of its cause.
We have made Amazon many millions of dollars and over the years have contributed so much, free of charge, to the company by way of cooperation, joint promotions, reviews and blogs.
This is no way to treat a business partner. Nor is it the right way to treat your friends. Without taking sides on the contractual dispute between Hachette and Amazon, we encourage Amazon in the strongest possible terms to stop harming the livelihood of the authors on whom it has built its business.
With it being so inexpensive and with so many more people able to afford to buy and read books, you would think the literary establishment of the day would have celebrated the invention of the paperback, yes? Nope. Instead, they dug in and circled the wagons.
They believed low cost paperbacks would destroy literary culture and harm the industry (not to mention their own bank accounts). Many bookstores refused to stock them, and the early paperback publishers had to use unconventional methods of distribution places like newsstands and drugstores.
The famous author George Orwell came out publicly and said about the new paperback format, if publishers had any sense, they would combine against them and suppress them. Yes, George Orwell was suggesting collusion. Well... history doesnt repeat itself, but it does rhyme...
When a thing has been done a certain way for a long time, resisting change can be a reflexive instinct, and the powerful interests of the status quo are hard to move. It was never in George Orwells interest to suppress paperback books he was wrong about that.
The Penguin Books are splendid value for sixpence, so splendid that if other publishers had any sense they would combine against them and suppress them.
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.
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