Fresh off settling a lawsuit that accused it of collusion with publishers, Apple is ready to take the money you were planning to give to Amazon but can’t. Since Amazon is in a fight with Hachette — the world’s largest bookstore and one of the world’s largest publishers respectively — and refuses to let customers pre-order any books from the publisher, Apple has stepped up to fill the void.
Amazon, which benefited from Apple’s ebook pricing lawsuit, is now stuck in a fight over — surprise — pricing with Hachette; Amazon wants books to be cheaper, Hachette wants to stay in business. The problem is Amazon can, has and will play dirty.
Books from notable authors like JK Rowling and James Patterson are unavailable for pre-order on Amazon, which may not affect such popular authors too harshly, but for first-time authors, like Edan Lepucki, whose novel California has been critically acclaimed, not being available for pre-order on Amazon could be severely detrimental to the sales of the book (if it wasn’t for Stephen Colbert).
While it won’t alleviate all the issues for the authors, books from the three aforementioned names and many more Hachette authors are on sale and available for pre-order in iBooks. [Recode]