Amazon tells Hachette authors it'll give them 100% of e-book sales

Amazon is trying to make a lucrative deal with authors affected by the ongoing fight between the online retailer and major book publisher, Hachette.

How good of a deal? How about 100 percent of the revenue from all Hachette-published e- book sales — at least for the duration of the Amazon/Hachette fight. The news comes from a letter that Amazon exec David Naggar sent to a small group of writers recently, according to a New York Times report. The offer is similar to one the company initially made to Hachette after the book publisher complained that the Amazon fight was really hurting authors by preventing them from collecting larger royalty checks.

Amazon previously started punishing Hachette after both parties failed to reach a new, more lucrative contract agreement back in April. The move led Amazon to stop offering preorders or discounts on Hachette books as well as yanking all the publisher’s books from product recommendations on its website.

As of now, it doesn’t look like many authors have taken the temporary deal, which could be because no one wants to take sides between a major book publisher and one of the world’s biggest (and as demonstrated) and most powerful online retail companies. However, we also don’t know how the terms of this temporary deal work either — specifically, if it applies to all authors, or if individual authors can agree to the deal.

We’re reaching out to Amazon for more details, and will update this post with any new information.