The war between Amazon and theBig 5 Publishers

The dispute between Amazon - the world's pre-eminent retailer of books -and Hachette, one of the so-called Big 5 Publishers, has transfixed thepublishing industry. Corporate hardball in retail-supplier negotiations is hardlyunknown, but this particular game of hardball is snaring some very big nameauthors: Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen Colbert and many others. Amazon ispulling ""Buy now"" buttons from author pages and putting lists of books bycomparable authors right at the top of Hachette author pages.The fightback fromHachette and the industry generally has been fierce, with most observersbelieving that Amazon is coming off worst in the PR war, despite some fairlybold efforts to compensate authors - and rather more openness than thatfamously secretive firm normally permits.That war, however, has not generallyexplored the financial ins and outs of the dispute - which is what this infographic

competitors, even if we look at Amazon's media sales only. But this dispute isn'tabout revenues, but about the sharing of profits - and remarkably, Amazon'sprofits from books are puny - exceeded by each of the Big 5 publishers andcollectively only about 1/7th of the Big 5 total. That data suggests that however(strangely) badly Amazon is faring in PR terms, the financial issue is not likelyto be settled until Amazon gets a larger - and fairer? - share of the spoils.Oh -and authors? They have so far been siding resolutely with Hachette and thepublishing industry generally ... no matter that there is at the same time a spatterof barbed observations about the frighteningly small amounts that publishers payauthors. Continue to watch this space! This show will run and run.

Via: http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk

takes a close look at. In revenue terms, Amazon dwarfs any of its publishing