Apple Is Happy to Sell You the Hachette Books Amazon Won't Stock
Amazon doesn't want to sell books from Hachette Book Group. — More for us, says Apple, which is taking advantage of the fight between the world's biggest bookstore and one of the world's biggest publishers.
Context & Ripple Effects
The dispute has been running since late May, when Amazon began refusing Hachette book orders and listing some titles as unavailable, then publicly confirmed the standoff was deliberate. Author and industry criticism has mounted throughout, as Gigaom noted earlier in the fight.
Apple's move fits a longer rivalry: back in 2012 paidContent reported Apple already fighting Amazon in the ebook price wars, and Apple carries its own baggage from the price-fixing claims that led to settlements with states and consumers over electronic book prices. Now it is casting itself as the bookstore Amazon isn't — with pickup across eight Apple-focused and tech outlets on the same day showing how readily the story travels.
First-order effects
- Hachette titles gain an immediate alternative storefront through Apple's iBooks, giving readers blocked by Amazon's unavailability listings somewhere to buy.
- Amazon loses some of the coercive force of its delisting tactic: every sale Apple captures demonstrates that withholding Hachette stock costs Amazon revenue rather than only pressuring the publisher.
Second-order effects
- Other major publishers watching the Hachette negotiation now have evidence that a credible second retailer exists, which strengthens their hand against Amazon's terms in future disputes.
- Apple gains merchandising differentiation at essentially zero cost — it needs no new inventory deal, just visibility for books its rival won't carry — sharpening the two companies' ebook competition.
Third-order effects
- If publishers respond by deliberately cultivating multiple retail channels whenever Amazon squeezes them, the structural dependence of big publishing on a single dominant bookstore weakens, and retailer leverage in contract talks shifts accordingly.
The trend: Publishing's biggest distribution fights are pushing publishers toward multi-retail strategies, with Apple positioned as the perennial counterweight to Amazon's marketplace power.