Just the books, please: Public shrugs off Amazon-Hachette spat at BookExpo

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Publishers and the public met this weekend at BookExpo America, the annual industry convention, and seemed to speak in different languages.

If you were part of the book business, “Amazon” was a dirty word and “Hachette” an applause line as editors, booksellers, writers and agents pondered, fretted and otherwise refused to discuss the well-publicized and sharply-worded standoff in negotiations between the online retailer and Hachette Book Group.

But if you were among some 10,000 readers who paid $30 apiece and crowded the aisles, conference rooms and banquet hall of the Jacob K. Javits Center, Amazon likely remained a favourite Internet destination and Hachette a name so unfamiliar that it needed to be repeated.