Hachette is the first among the world's five largest publishers (Penguin merged with Random House last year) to sign another contract with Amazon since its court-mandated contract in 2012—and likely the most important. In the coming two years, Amazon and its competitors will renegotiate contracts with all of the world's largest publishers and in 2015 they will be again allowed by law to negotiate contracts where they determine the prices of e-books. Amazon likely doesn't want this and, by the looks of it, is even willing to inconvenience its own customers in the short term to ensure this long-term outcome.

In its statement, Amazon wrote:

When we negotiate with suppliers, we are doing so on behalf of customers. ... If you do need one of the affected titles quickly, we regret the inconvenience and encourage you to purchase a new or used version from one of our third-party sellers or from one of our competitors.

Amazon is willing to go so far as to push customers to its competitors to win this battle. There are two major issues at play. The first is the price of books, particularly e-books. Amazon wants to continue to control it and to offer any discount it chooses to consumers; Hachette, on the other hand, likely wants to leave an opening for the possibility of going back to its previous pricing scheme in 2015. If it can set the prices across retailers, it can do a little to help protect its other trading partners, most importantly Apple and Barnes & Noble. Amazon, unlike Barnes & Noble, for instance, doesn't need to make money on books to be profitable. It can theoretically lose money on each sale of an e-book if it makes up the difference when it sells a garden rake or a package of diapers. Trying to compete on e-book prices with Amazon has been a major factor in driving Sony and Kobo out of the U.S. e-book market.

The second issue in the negotiation is what's known in the book publishing industry as "co-op." It's a form of marketing: Publishers pay retailers to ensure customers see their books in stores. For instance, when you see a cover of a book displayed on a bookstore shelf and not its spine, that's no accident. A publisher paid for that special billing. Amazon wants Hachette to pay more for placement on its website. By paying a higher rate of co-op, Hachette would essentially be transferring some of its profit margin to Amazon.

Like nearly every business dispute, this one is about money.

But, ultimately, it's about so much more than that.

Let's assume Amazon wins this negotiation with Hachette and secures pricing control over e-books and a higher payment for marketing services (essentially, a bigger piece of Hachette's profits). Hachette books are once again in stock and available for readers in a matter of days; "buy buttons" are restored for book pre-orders; the sales resume their flow. When the next publisher is up for renegotiation (either HarperCollins or Simon & Schuster), they will know what they are in for in terms of losses of sales and damage to reputation among authors, if they don't sign. Each publisher that agrees to whatever terms Hachette is resisting now will make it more likely that the next will do the same.