The dispute between Amazon - the world's pre-eminent retailer of books - and Hachette, one of the so-called Big 5 Publishers, has transfixed the publishing industry. Corporate hardball in retail-supplier negotiations is hardly unknown, but this particular game of hardball is snaring some very big name authors: Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen Colbert and many others. Amazon is pulling ""Buy now"" buttons from author pages and putting lists of books by comparable authors right at the top of Hachette author pages.
