It’s over.
Long story short, Hachette won the ability to set its own prices, and the deal roughly aligns with the one Amazon negotiated with Simon & Schuster.
Here are some of the reactions around the Internet:
NY Times
Mike Shatzkin
GigaOM
Publishers Lunch (subscription required)
Vox
My sources tell me that we haven’t read the last blog post about how traditional publishers are the guardians of truth and Amazon is the root of all evil or that traditional publishers are antiquarian luddites and Amazon is saving the world for readers.
Stand by…
Art: Club Night by George Bellows
As long as books are still available to purchase (or download free), it doesn't matter to me who gets my money 🙂
If the writer gets more readers, I'm happy.
If all readers get access to more writers, I"m happy.
If, however, Hachette colludes with the other publishers to set prices–as the Justice Department found several "traditional" publishers had tried to do, when Amazon called them on it–then, I won't be happy.
At all. With any of the arbiters of "literature" in this country, which seems to base "art" on that other statistic: sales.
Nathan, you said we're going to get more blog posts about this? (Long sigh.) When is everyone going to let it go already?
Maybe I'm wrong, but the court said something about price fixing on the part of the publishers, and required each to work a deal with Amazon. Amazon was fighting against collusion. I don't get anything in this article that reflects that.
I saw this hullabaloo as turf-squabble between commercial giants, and felt sad that some authors mistook it for a righteous moral cause. The armistice is just as I expected, and no doubt you are right that there'll be more such to come.
Painting by George Bellows, Club Night, 1907
Mr. Bellows was a notable American painter from what was derogatorily called the Ashcan School, so called for brutal images, harsh lighting, and aggressive painting style.
I hate it when someone's work is taken without permission, payment, or credit. Don't you Mr. Bransford?
anon-
I gave credit (last line of the post: Art: Club Night by George Bellows) and the painting is in the public domain, not sure what you're referring to.