“Amazon wants to do away with gatekeepers,” explains NYT in a related article. “It promises a world where books are cheap, where anyone can publish anything, where there are no editors or distributors saying this is not what is selling now, go away.”
“Hachette is holding fast to the traditional publishing system that underpins modern culture. It was a world where publishers bankrolled writers in return for a large cut of the proceeds, where editors improved prose and sharpened arguments, and where books were selected and presented rather than simply released. They cost more, too.”
“The dispute is about money, but the outcome — whether Hachette gives up on pricing and pays a little more for marketing, or not — is about so much more.”
See the full story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/technology/amazon-hachette-book-publisher-dispute.html?_r=0