Hachette Begins Transition to Agency Model; Some Buy Buttons Not Activated on Amazon

By Jason Boog 

hachette.jpgToday Hachette Book Group officially transitioned to an agency model for digital book sales, writing a letter to authors and agents explaining the change. As of this writing, buy buttons for many Hachette eBooks are not available on Amazon.

UPDATE: A previous version of this post linked to an out-of-print book. You can follow the new link to check the availability of the Kindle editon. You can check availability of Hachette eBooks on Amazon by clicking on this link to Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. GalleyCat has obtained a copy of the email, including a reference to possible “some short-term interruption in the availability of our eBooks” as the transition begins.

The email explained: “As we announced in February, starting on April 1, 2010, all eBook titles published by Hachette Book Group will be sold directly to consumers by means of third party agents. This agency model allows us to make more titles available to more consumers on more platforms. We are pleased to let you know that we have made arrangements with most of our eBook distributors to operate under this model.”

More after the jump…


The email continued: “However, as with any transition, we expect there will be a few hiccups along the way, and you may even see some short-term interruption in the availability of our eBooks, especially in the first few days, as systems are being adapted to accommodate changes. We fully expect any such issues to be resolved within the first week, as we smooth out the new processes.”