Bookselling - the genteel art

[Eric]

The latest price war between, this time, Amazon and Hachette:

Amazon uses all its might to wage price war against publisher - Times Online

The introductory paragraphs read:

A price war is raging between a powerful online bookseller and a leading publisher, with authors caught in the crossfire and losing vital royalties.

Amazon is in conflict with the Hachette Group, Britain’s largest publisher, over terms and discounts and is refusing to sell its titles.

How many of you knew that the Hachette group (an American-French set-up) was Britain's largest publisher:

Hachette Book Group USA (HBG) was created when Hachette Livre, a global publishing company based in France, acquired Time Warner Book Group from Time Warner in 2006. Hachette Livre is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lagardère, a company that is active worldwide in the areas of communications and media (books, press, audiovisual and distribution/retailing of cultural products).

It seems ironic that Britain's largest publishing conglomerate is owned by foreigners, but we don't read all that many books written by foreigners, unless they're written in English.