Colbert Takes a Hachette to Amazon

By Ester Bloom June 5, 2014

Perhaps you’ve been following the Hachette Publishers vs. Amazon.com kerfuffle? Everyone from indie Brooklyn publishing houses to the Editorial Page of the New York Times has gone on record deploring the online behemoth’s slash-and-burn tactics. TL;DR: Amazon, which already controls about 50% of US book sales, wants even better terms from publishing houses, and is not above twisting arms to get its way. One guy who doesn’t like having his arm twisted? Hachette author Stephen Colbert. Who is, coincidentally, one comedian you don’t want to piss off.

Like John Oliver, Stephen Colbert took matters into his own hands, giving Amazon the finger (twice) on national TV last night, and then inviting on another Hachette author, the terrific Sherman Alexie, to commiserate. Together they promoted debut novelist Edan Lepucki’s California, because Hachette’s less-established writers are the real victims of this fight, telling audiences to show Amazon up by buying the book via Colbert Nation. Full clips below.

The Colbert Report
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