Hachette and Amazon Resolve Dispute

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On Thursday, November 13, Amazon and Hachette Book Group announced that they had agreed to a multi-year contract for print and e-book sales in the U.S., thus ending their months-long dispute, which reportedly centered on e-book pricing. Both sides said they were pleased with the outcome, but terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In a joint statement, Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch said, “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.”

Amazon executive David Naggar said that the online giant was “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.”

Under the terms, which will take effect early next year, Hachette will be responsible for setting consumer prices for its e-books.

During the dispute, Amazon was reportedly delaying shipments of Hachette titles and restocking titles slowly and was not offering discounts or pre-ordering on many Hachette titles.