A group of authors including Malcolm Gladwell, Ursula Le Guin and Michael Chabon have come together under the name Authors United to urge the Justice Department to investigate Amazon for its “power over the book market.”
In a letter penned by authors Douglas Preston and Barry Lynn and sent to the DOJ, the authors point out that Amazon controls more than 75 percent of online sales of physical books; more than 65 percent of e-book sales; and more than 40 percent of sales of new books. Here is an excerpt from the letter:
In recent years, Amazon has used its dominance in ways that we believe harm the interests of America’s readers, impoverish the book industry as a whole, damage the careers of (and generate fear among) many authors, and impede the free flow of ideas in our society.
The same group of authors was actively challenging Amazon last year during the retailer’s drawn out dispute with Hachette.
