Douglas Preston-Authors United vs Amazon Continues

You guys are washing the Panzermobile.

Panzer headed out into the Catosphere, but his radar wasn't working because he immediately ran into a Douglas Preston-Hachette-Authors United vs Amazon cloud.

My poor little kitty could barely see out to keep control of the Panzermobile while he was dodging all the flying fertilizer and guano.

My intrepid captain finally landed the ship at the Publisher's Weekly site first. There he found a post by Paige Crutcher. The post was about the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance's luncheon for bestselling author James Patterson. Also present was Michael Pietsch representing Mr. Patterson's publisher Hachette.

As one of Panzer's friends, you'll remember that Mr. Patterson is one of the signers of Douglas Preston's letter/ad in the New York Times and the letter to the Amazon Board of Directors.

While neither Mr. Patterson or Mr. Pietsch made any direct comments about their dispute with Amazon, Mr. Patterson did make a disparaging joke about Amazon. All in all, the post makes interesting reading.

However, what was really splatting the Panzermobile was the post Panzer found when he stopped at The Passive Voice site next. It seems bestselling author Douglas Preston and his Authors United group have come up with another letter. This one is to the U.S. Department of Justice.

For what?

They want the DoJ to start an antitrust investigation of Amazon because they don't like the way the company does business.

Panzer says, "Let me get this straight ... Hachette still hasn't signed a new contract with Amazon to sell their books, but you guys want the DoJ and the US government to spend money to force Amazon to sell Hachette's books as if there was a contract."

To read the post about the letter to the DoJ, tootle over to Douglas Preston and Company