This Vanity Fair article, “The War of the Words,” tells the story not only of the recent Amazon vs. Hachette conflict but also of the publishing business, e-books, the Apple collusion case, Goodreads, Kindles, and much more.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about the ascension of e-books (27 percent of book sales in 2013) and what that means for physical books and the imminent “death of print.” This article does a good job, I think, in not casting characters as heroes and villains. After all, traditional New York publishers, backed by media conglomerates, may not the bastions of reading freedom.
It’s a long article, but if you’re interested in the book industry, I think it’s worth it.
Excerpt
“Amazon’s war with publishing giant Hachette over e-book pricing has earned it a black eye in the media, with the likes of Philip Roth, James Patterson, and Stephen Colbert demanding that the online mega-store stand down.”
Source: http://j.mp/1whurTh (via Pocket). You can also find this article at Iserotope Extras, a curated list of my favorite articles about teaching, reading, and technology.