I might not be Gladwell's biggest fan but there is no way he is as confused about this situation as he is pretending to be. Not surprising he wants to stay out of this fight, but I am surprised he took on a naive bumpkin caricature to do so.
For those interested in a longer analysis of what Amazon's relationship with publishers looks like, I'd recommend George Packer's article from the New Yorker earlier this year:<p><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/02/17/140217fa_fact_packer?currentPage=all" rel="nofollow">http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/02/17/140217fa_fact_...</a>
One of the pleasant takeaways from this is this entirely expected economic reaction to Amazon's behavior<p><i>"Amazon’s competitors are trying to seize the advantage. Walmart.com, for instance, is promoting Hachette titles at 40 percent off, and said Friday that its online book sales had jumped as a result."</i>
If anything this seems like the customer is the one that is being used as a bargaining chip, not Malcolm Gladwell. There are two companies trying to get their way, refusing to budge, and using whatever tools are at their disposal to try to get the other to acquiesce.
The good thing about authors speaking up is that it cuts through the common techie meme that authors and publishers don't have aligned interests. The same is true for other "dinosaur industries" like record labels and artists.
For some reason, I just see a blank NYT page: <a href="http://i.imgur.com/kX37bFR.png" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/kX37bFR.png</a>
I've been seeing a lot of news on this, and most people are crying out against Amazon for hurting authors. However it's their <i>publisher</i> who had the federal government on their back for price fixing.<p>It was <i>their publisher</i> who instigated this. Amazon is a retailer and when 5/6ths of the big publishers conspire to price fix, you can bet every one of them is going to have their necks on the cutting block.<p>Amazon does not need these publishers, they are no longer an online book company they're one of the worlds biggest retailers. These publishers need Amazon, they're a massive retailer known for books.<p>Don't shit where you eat folks.