Hachette Book Group — one of the largest New York publishing houses, which sells the work of popular writers like J.D. Salinger, Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen Colbert — told The New York Times that Amazon is delaying the delivery of some of its books, even though it is fulfilling all of Amazon's orders.
When a company that controls more than a third of the book market in the United States lists delays for the shipment of your titles for several weeks, it's a big deal.
Hachette said that Amazon is essentially discouraging users from buying its products, not because of a lack of supply from Amazon, but for "reasons of their own."
Both old and new Hachette books have listed shipping estimates of up to five weeks, when most popular books on Amazon are available within two days.
“We have been asked legitimate questions about why many of our books are at present marked out of stock with relatively long estimated shipping times on the Amazon website, in contrast to immediate availability on other websites and in stores,” Sophie Cottrell, a Hachette spokeswoman, told the New York Times. “We are satisfying all Amazon’s orders promptly.”
In the past, Amazon has used its incredible selling power to demand bigger discounts from publishers, or more time to pay its bills. There have been times when a publisher wouldn't comply, and Amazon would take that company's titles out of its recommendation algorithms. In 2010, Amazon and the publisher Macmillan got into a dispute about e-book prices and Amazon took the "buy" buttons off all its books.
Business Insider has reached out to Amazon and will update if we hear back.
