Amazon fans and foes often talk past each other without engaging. Here, two fierce writers make their best case.

Just when I think media coverage of Amazon/Hachette can't get any worse, Rob Spillman gets everything wrong in today's Salon.

Authors United seems convinced that Amazon needs the Big 5, and their books. But Amazon has shown it can get 500,000 titles in Kindle Unlimited without major publisher support.

If publishers want to survive, they need to offer authors something Amazon can't. Paper distribution, advances, editors with magic wands that bestow rich literary culture and nurturing, etc.

The Authors Guild has, many times in the past, voiced that ebook royalties should be raised. So do something about it.

I asked any Authors United signatory to engage me on my blog. Lee Child took me up on it.

Follow up to ‘Lee Child Chimes In.’

Konrath and Eisler fisk Turow’s post on the Department of Justice lawsuit against legacy publishing’s agency pricing model on the Authors Guild blog.

Here's a little real talk about the book publishing industry — it adds almost no value, it is going to be wiped off the face of the earth soon, and writers and readers will be better off for it.

A number of authors have suggested that there are anti-trust issues in play here, but it's difficult to see why that would be the case. No retailer has a legal obligation to carry everyone's products or stock them in a convenient way.

What makes Jeff Bezos a strong CEO and an important business leader is that he's been able to fend off shareholder demands to get their grubby hands on this money. Instead he's deploying it to grow the franchise.

My guess is that Amazon's growth-first strategy really is exactly what it looks like—a strategy to pursue growth first that shareholders tolerate because Jeff Bezos is executing it really well and he has a compelling vision.

Amazon is indifferent to whether you buy good books or bad books, but I'm not indifferent and neither is George Packer and nor are lots of other writers and editors out there.