View From Down Under: A response to Smashwords | TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics

View From Down Under: A response to Smashwords | TeleRead:

"Arguing that the old publishing model was broken (all the power in publishers’ hands, low returns for authors, waste, inefficiency) is fine, but replacing it with a model in which all the power is in publisher’s hands and returns to authors are slightly better is not a fix.

Decrying the fact that the big bad retailers were able to discount a poor author’s books, reducing their cash return, ignores the fact that the whole point of discounting is to increase sales, and therefore the return to the author. Price down, sales usually up. Americans are fond of calling it the “free market”. Ironic that this all started in New York."