Authors United May Not Want to Admit It, but Most Books Are Consumer Goods Like Any Other

As my colleague Laura Owen has reported, Authors United - a group of writers who are upset at the tactics Amazon is using to negotiate with the French publisher Hachette - has posted a letter to the company's board of directors, arguing that the online retailer is being unfair to authors. Among other things, the group says Amazon is making a mistake by treating books like any other consumer product.

In fact, in a somewhat bizarre turn of events for a group that is supposedly protesting Amazon's methods