Amazon Blocks Book Publisher as Industry Tensions Boil Over

Growing tensions in the book publishing industry have led Amazon to block orders from Hachette, the publisher home to popular writers such as Malcolm Gladwell and James Patterson.

The move by Amazon is the culmination of an ongoing contract dispute between the two, with Hachette believed to be taking a stand against Amazon demands for better terms. Numerous books from the publisher are now listed as "currently unavailable" on Amazon, the New York Times found.

Amazon has come under pressure recently to begin to generate greater profits from its massive revenue stream. One way to do this is to push companies that sell products on its platform to offer a greater share of the money generated from e-books. This puts publishers in a difficult position of relying on Amazon for sales while trying to negotiate revenue sharing. Read more...