Hachette Chief Leads Book Publishers in Amazon Fight

As the first chief executive of a major publishing house to negotiate new terms with Amazon since the Justice Department sued five publishers in 2012 for conspiring to raise e-book prices, Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch finds himself fighting not just for the future of Hachette, but for that of every publisher that works with Amazon. Because Hachette and Amazon have signed confidentiality agreements as part of their negotiations, the particulars of their dispute have been kept secret. But inside the publishing world, the consensus is that Amazon wants to offer deep discounts on Hachette’s electronic books, and that the negotiations are not going well.