Authors United Open Letter to Run in Sunday Times

Shelf Awareness

Douglas Preston

Authors United, a group of nearly 1,000 authors led by Douglas Preston, is running a full-page ad in this Sunday's New York Times, the Bookseller reported. The ad reproduces the open letter that the group began circulating a month ago, protesting Amazon for having "directly targeted Hachette's authors in an effort to force their publisher to agree to its terms." The group, which includes many authors not published by Hachette, said, "We feel strongly that no bookseller should block the sale of books or otherwise prevent or discourage customers from ordering or receiving the books they want."

The authors wrote, "Many of us have supported Amazon since it was a struggling start-up... and have made Amazon many millions of dollars and over the years have contributed so much, free of charge, to the company by way of cooperation, joint promotions, reviews and blogs. This is no way to treat a business partner."

They call on the public to e-mail Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos "and tell him what you think. He says he genuinely welcomes hearing from his customers and claims to read all e-mails from this account. We hope that, writers and readers together, we will be able to change his mind."