Tried to pre-order JK Rowling’s forthcoming The Silkworm on Amazon, only to find that no such option exists? The title is one of several victims of the company’s very public spat with publishers Hachette, which Amazon is holding to ransom for cheaper pricing on e-books. Until now, however, the company remained tight-lipped on the tactic, but in a blog post, admitted that it was playing hardball with its rival. What that means for customers is that the retailer is only buying bare-minimum quantities of existing stock and will only offer new books for sale after their publication. In its mind, Amazon is fighting for better (i.e. cheaper) pricing for its customers, but we imagine that someone’s forgotten about the poor authors who are likely to sell even fewer copies while this rages along.