Hachette and Amazon have spent months trying to negotiate a deal, which still seems to be miles away. How long will the negotiations be going on? It could be a while yet.
The Wall Street Journal revealed that the small publishing house Kensington Publishing spent 18 months battling Amazon to forge a one-year deal.
Check it out: “Steven Zacharius, president and chief executive of Kensington, said the deal took so long to resolve partly because ‘each person got entrenched and didn’t want to budge. But at a certain point there has to be compromise.’ Both sides gradually made concessions, he said, enabling them to reach agreement. Mr. Zacharius declined to discuss specifics of why it took so long to negotiate a new pact. Such contracts typically include the size of the discount that the publisher allows the retailer off its list prices, payment terms, and promotional funding. However, he characterized the final agreement as ‘a fair deal for both parties.'”
