On any given day, your social media feed will explode over an issue that your followers insist is Very Important. One of this week's debates focused on the battle between Amazon and book publisher Hachette, but what exactly is going on, and do you need to care?

How did this start?
Amazon and Hachette were negotiating the price at which Amazon would sell Hachette's ebooks. Retailers typically take 30 percent of sales and on top of that Amazon takes a "co-op promotional fee" for making the book available on the site. Talks reached an impasse.

And so Amazon made it so that you can't buy Hachette books on its site?
It's not that you can't buy Hachette-published books, it's that you can't place pre-orders and some long-released books that are in plentiful supply are taking weeks to ship. So if you were one of the people who liked J.K. Rowling's foray into writing a mystery novel for adults and are anxious to read her second, you can only get an email reminder on the day it's available instead of receiving the actual book.

Who does this affect the most?
Hachette authors with new print and ebooks out will be the hardest hit. Disabling pre-orders at such a large retailer could result in fewer copies sold over the lifetime of the book since high pre-orders can trigger publishers to print and sell more books. Additionally, the publishing industry places a lot of weight on how well a book does with its first-week sales, which includes pre-orders. This has a direct effect on placement on bestseller lists and an indirect effect on an author's career.

What share of the ebook market does Amazon represent?
Amazon has about 65 percent of the ebook market.

This is David and Goliath, isn't it? Shouldn't I just stop using Amazon, even though I can't really resist that free shipping?
In 2013, Hachette's revenue was about $3 billion and Amazon's revenue was about $75 billion. The judgment call is up to you.

So why is everyone up in arms?
The concern is that now that Amazon has effectively cornered the market on book sales - Borders has shut down and Barnes & Noble isn't exactly doing gangbusters, not to mention the small booksellers - Amazon will use its clout to pull moves like this Hachette debacle. Of course, the DOJ didn't take too kindly to Apple's price-fixing scheme, so it remains to be seen if Amazon could get away with sketchy behavior of its own. As Farhad Manjoo, who penned Friday's New York Times story on the battle, noted on Twitter: "I'm the guy who long defended Amazon against charges it was ruining literary culture. Today I feel like a dope."

What does Amazon have to say about this?
On Tuesday night, the Amazon Books Team acknowledged that Amazon is not taking pre-orders of Hachette-published books. Rather than keeping them in stock, Amazon is ordering them from Hachette as orders come in. "Suppliers get to decide the terms under which they are willing to sell to a retailer," it said. "It's reciprocally the right of a retailer to determine whether the terms on offer are acceptable and to stock items accordingly. A retailer can feature a supplier's items in its advertising and promotional circulars, 'stack it high' in the front of the store, keep small quantities on hand in the back aisle, or not carry the item at all, and bookstores and other retailers do these every day." The statement called Hachette "part of a $10 billion media conglomerate" (as a division of Lagardère), and said that "unfortunately, despite much work from both sides, we have been unable to reach mutually-acceptable agreement on terms."

And what about Hachette?
Hachette spoke to the LA Times: "We are doing everything in our power to find a solution to this difficult situation, one that best serves our authors and their work, and that preserves our ability to survive and thrive as a strong and author-centric publishing company." And to the New York Times: "We are determined to protect the value of our authors' books and our own work in editing, distributing and marketing them," said Sophie Cottrell, a Hachette senior vice president. "We hope this difficult situation will not last a long time, but we are sparing no effort and exploring all options."

Has this happened before?
As a matter of fact, it has. In 2010, Amazon had the same type of dispute with Macmillan andpulled all of its books from the site. The two eventually reached an undisclosed agreement. But in Amazon's statement on Hachette, it said it put up half of an author pool and Macmillan put up the other half to offset the loss of royalties for writers."

For more, check out PCMag Live in the video below, which discusses the spat.

Editor's Note: This story was updated Wednesday with Amazon's comments.