A Hachette title currently being sold at $14.99, the price Amazon is fighting against. As the war between Amazon and Hachette carries on, the Amazon Books team released a longer explanation Tuesday of what it's trying to accomplish by stonewalling the publisher. The gist of Amazon's claims is that e-books need to be cheaper because cheaper books sell more volume, resulting in a larger "total pie" that gets consumers lower prices. The New York Times first highlighted Amazon's interference with Hachette book sales at the end of May, which involved the company systematically making books unavailable or shipping them very slowly.