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Hachette to set e-book prices under new Amazon deal Print Email
Written by Christine D. Johnson   
Monday, 17 November 2014 05:16 PM America/New_York

HachetteBookGroup-square-webHachette Book Group and Amazon announced Thursday that the companies had reached a new, multi-year agreement for e-book and print sales in the U.S. Under the agreement, Hachette is able to set prices for its e-books sold through Amazon.

Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch was pleased with the long-term agreement after engaging for months with Amazon in a brutal battle that raised the ire of authors.

“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.”

Amazon’s David Naggar, vice president, Kindle, said: “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.”

The new e-book terms will take effect early in 2015. Hachette will have responsibility for setting consumer prices of its e-books and will also benefit from better terms when it delivers lower prices for readers. Amazon and Hachette immediately resumed normal trading, and Hachette books will be prominently featured in promotions, according to Hachette’s statement on the matter.

Amazon also reached an agreement in October with another Big Five publisher, Simon & Schuster. Click here to read our report on that deal.