After a long-running dispute that began this spring, Amazon and Hachette Book Group USA have reached a new, multi-year agreement for e-book and print sales in the U.S., the companies said in a joint release issued late Thursday morning. With the deal, “Amazon and Hachette will resume normal trading, and Hachette books will be prominently featured in promotions,” the announcement said. Since the dispute became public this spring, Amazon has not allowed pre-orders on HBG titles and has often delayed shipments on some of its new titles.
In the statement, HBG CEO Michael Pietsch said, "This is great news for writers. The new agreement will benefit Hachette authors for years to come. It gives Hachette enormous marketing capability with one of our most important bookselling partners.”
"We are pleased with this new agreement as it includes specific financial incentives for Hachette to deliver lower prices, which we believe will be a great win for readers and authors alike," said David Naggar, v-p, Kindle.
Although details of the agreement were not available, they appear similar to the deal struck between Simon & Schuster and Amazon last month. New e-book terms will take effect in early 2015, and like S&S, HBG will have responsibility for setting the consumer e-book price, while also benefiting from better terms when it delivers lower prices.
The agreement ends a dispute that drew national headlines, inspired editorials from major media outlets, and pitted industry members who supported HBG against those, relatively few, who took Amazon’s side in the fight.
Read an extended history of the Amazon-Hachette dispute here.
