Amazon wants to put money in authors’ pockets while the online retail titan battles with Hachette over terms of selling books handled by the publishing powerhouse.

Hachette told AFP that it had received the proposal on Tuesday, and fired back with a call for Amazon to “withdraw the sanctions they have unilaterally imposed,” on the publisher’s titles.

Amazon is offering to give Hachette authors all revenue brought in for digital copies of books ― rewarding writers instead of making them casualties of negotiation tactics wielded in the contract dispute.

A letter sent to Hachette writers in recent days by Kindle vice president of content and independent publishing David Naggar reasoned that the idea promised to deliver “a big windfall” to authors while motivating both companies to reach an accord.

“If Hachette agrees, for as long as this dispute lasts, Hachette authors would get 100 percent of the sales price of every Hachette e-book we sell,” Naggar said in a copy of the letter posted at tech news website GigaOm.

With all money from book sales routed to authors, Amazon would go back to pre-dispute levels of inventory and resume pricing discounts as well as pre-orders for coming Hachette titles, according to terms set out in the letter.

French publishing powerhouse Hachette showed no sign Tuesday of going along with the idea.

“We believe that the best outcome for the writers we publish is a contract with Amazon that brings genuine marketing benefits and whose terms allow Hachette to continue to invest in writers, marketing, and innovation,” Hachette said in an email response to an AFP inquiry. (AFP)