Amazon to authors: suck my left tit (my right's been removed for battle)

The rapidly degenerating publishing economy has led to a strange, petty war between Amazon and Hachette:

The online bookseller has imposed extraordinary sanctions against the publisher, whose authors include the bestselling writers Stephen King and James Patterson. It is listing Hachette books but preventing the public from purchasing them by removing the "buy new" button from its websites. Titles such as the hardback of King’s Duma Key and Patterson’s The 6th Target have been affected with only "used" copies being offered for sale.

Amazon only seems to be applying pressure on really big titles -- Patterson and King et al. Yet one wonders whether the entire industry -- from scribbler to agent to publisher to printer to wack bullying online retailer -- has gone nutty, scrambling over wafer-thin margins in each transaction. The resulting catalectic sustenance chain leaves out the creator, go figure:

Mark Le Fanu, general secretary of the Society of Authors, told The Times that discounts demanded by the big retailers have been rising relentlessly, squeezing authors’ royalties. "Authors are being unreasonably penalised by Amazon," he said. "It’s right that publishers stand up to Amazon and don’t carry on conceding ever higher discounts.

"Authors lose royalties as the discounts get bigger. Amazon is playing this one hard. Authors are suffering as a result. If Amazon is only selling secondhand copies of books, the author doesn’t get any money from them."

So again, as always, writers are forced to aim for immortality rather than luchre.