Amazon Aims at Publisher Hachette's CEO in Contract Dispute

Amazon.com stepped up the war of words in its nearly four-month contract battle with publisher Hachette Book Group, calling on authors to email the publisher's chief executive directly to pressure him to agree to its terms.

In a letter sent to Amazon authors and posted online, the Seattle-based retailer again pressed its case for lowering e-book prices and detailed talking points to send to Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch. "Stop using [Hachette] authors as leverage and accept one of Amazon's offers to take them out of the middle," one of the talking points said.

"E-books can and should be less expensive," Amazon said in its response. During negotiations Amazon has slowed delivery of some Hachette books, removed the preorder button on others and reduced the discount it offers on some titles.