• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

Colbert Gives Amazon The Finger, And Collects Pre-Orders for A Hachette Author

June 4, 2014
By Michael Cader

Hachette Book Group author Stephen Colbert used his Comedy Central television show to speak out on the battle between his publisher and Amazon on Wednesday night. “Now I’m not just mad at Amazon,” Colbert said, “I’m mad Prime.” After explaining the standoff to his viewers, Colbert concluded by offering Amazon a special “little package” that ships immediately: He opened the box to reveal his obscured middle finger, and then noted, “customers who enjoy this, also enjoy this” (adding his second middle finger).

In the second part of the segment, Colbert brought out another HBG author Sherman Alexie. “You root for the authors,” ColbertStickerAlexie said — and to put that into action, he recommended pre-ordering Edan Lepucki’s debut novel CALIFORNIA, which publishes July 8. Colbert paired with Powells.com to drive pre-orders “and we’re going to prove that I can sell more books than Amazon.” The Colbert site has a callout that links to the Powells order page.  The home page also features a printable sheet of “I Didn’t Buy It On Amazon” stickers. “Peel it off and put it right on any book you’re reading,” Colbert recommended.

Among other punchlines, Colbert commiserated that due to Amazon’s delays in availability on many Hachette titles, “If you order Hachette’s 21-day Weight Loss Kickstart, by the time it arrives you’re still fat.” While Amazon recommends customers consider used versions of Hachette books, “publishers and authors get no cash from used book sales. Plus you don’t want them. Used books are the sluts of the literary world — passed around from person to person, spreading their pages for anyone, getting cheaper and cheaper until eventually, they end up in prison.”

The segment was very much Colbert telling Amazon and “Lord Bezomore” this: “Watch out Bezos, this means war.” He added, “Sure Amazon may have an army of drones. But Hachette has, whatever a hachette is…. I’m going to say a tiny french hatchet?”

In separate but related news, Bloomberg reports on the battle and says HBG author Douglas Preston says, “I feel betrayed personally by this company now that it’s become one of the largest corporations in the world that it would do this to me” after he “supported Amazon from the time it was a struggling
startup.” Bloomberg says he has “been trying to draft a statement to help articulate Amazon’s effect on authors, [but] only about half of the writers he’s contacted have agreed to help — a sign of Amazon’s power, he said. ‘Quite a few authors say, ‘I totally agree with you, but I’m terrified going against Amazon.'”
Main Colbert video clip if you have not seen

Filed Under: Authors, Free

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Quick Pass users click here to log in
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • Showtime Has Cancelled Completed Show Based on Lisa Taddeo's "Three Women" Before It Aired February 6, 2023 WSJ
  • In Louisville, KY, Barnes & Noble to Swap 25,000-Square-Foot Store for 7,000 Square Feet Across the Parking Lot February 6, 2023 Biz Journal
  • DA Considered Racketeering Charge Against Trump, Pomerantz Book Says February 6, 2023 NYT
  • Booktopia Borrows $12 Million (AU) For New Fulfillment Center, With Some Funding From Nash and Taurig February 3, 2023 Press Release
  • Barnes & Noble Signs Lease for 7,000-Square-Foot Store in Brunswick, ME February 3, 2023 Maine Biz
  • A Former Prosecutor Explains the Precedents On Woodward and S&S's Side February 2, 2023 The Hill
  • Author Booted From Horror Writers Association Over Racist, Transphobic Rants February 1, 2023 Daily Beast
  • Two Years Ago Netflix Settled A Lawsuit Brought by Chooseco; Now Random House Has Licensed A "Stranger Things" Choose Your Own Adventure Book February 1, 2023 PW (with no reference to the lawsuit)
  • London Book Fair Seminars to Feature Harper CEO Brian Murray, Author Colson Whitehead February 1, 2023 Show site
  • Folio Prize Shortlists Announced February 1, 2023 Prize site
© 2023 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.