Amazon and Hachette agreed to settle their highly-publicized dispute over book pricing. The whole thing began earlier this year when Amazon dropped pre-orders for Hachette books and delayed delivery on some of them.
The online retail giant wanted Hachette to price all e-books at $9.99 while giving Amazon more money. The two parties have issued a joint press release announcing a new agreement. It’s a multi-year agreement for e-book and print sales in the U.S.
Michael Pietsch, Hachette Book Group CEO said, “This is great news for writers. 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.”
“We are 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,” said David Naggar, Vice President, Kindle.
According to the release, the new terms will go into effect early next year, and leave the responsibility for setting consumer prices for e-books with Hachette.
Both parties will resume normal trading, and Hachette books will be featured in promotions.
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