• Amazon lance un appel par email à ses auteurs d’ebook pour qu’ils harcèlent Hachette ! Et ils ont le culot d’enrôler George Orwell (dont ils avaient déjà censuré 1984 pour une sombre histoire de droits d’auteurs)…

    From: Kindle Direct Publishing <kdp-support@amazon.com>
    8:55 AM (4 minutes ago)

    Dear KDP Author,

    Just ahead of World War II, there was a radical invention that shook the foundations of book publishing. It was the paperback book. This was a time when movie tickets cost 10 or 20 cents, and books cost $2.50. The new paperback cost 25 cents – it was ten times cheaper. Readers loved the paperback and millions of copies were sold in just the first year.

    With it being so inexpensive and with so many more people able to afford to buy and read books, you would think the literary establishment of the day would have celebrated the invention of the paperback, yes? Nope. Instead, they dug in and circled the wagons. They believed low cost paperbacks would destroy literary culture and harm the industry (not to mention their own bank accounts). Many bookstores refused to stock them, and the early paperback publishers had to use unconventional methods of distribution – places like newsstands and drugstores. The famous author George Orwell came out publicly and said about the new paperback format, if “publishers had any sense, they would combine against them and suppress them.” Yes, George Orwell was suggesting collusion.
    (...)

    We will never give up our fight for reasonable e-book prices. We know making books more affordable is good for book culture. We’d like your help. Please email Hachette and copy us.

    Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch: Michael.Pietsch@hbgusa.com
    Copy us at: readers-united@amazon.com

    Please consider including these points:

    – We have noted your illegal collusion. Please stop working so hard to overcharge for ebooks. They can and should be less expensive.
    – Lowering e-book prices will help – not hurt – the reading culture, just like paperbacks did.
    – Stop using your authors as leverage and accept one of Amazon’s offers to take them out of the middle.
    – Especially if you’re an author yourself: Remind them that authors are not united on this issue.

    Thanks for your support.

    The Amazon Books Team

    http://www.readersunited.com