[u678u]

This model assumes the publisher does nothing. At least if you buy a OReilly or Wiley book you know it will be a decent standard. Many ebooks are junk and its not always obvious which ones.

[sdgasg]

Yup, having been burnt by a few bad e-book purchases (both, fiction and non-fiction), now I stick with big name publishers. Unless books are recommended by trusted Twitter or hn accounts.

[benibela]

And advertising is a big expense (when you cannot post it on HN)

Afair I read a post about self-published fantasy authors, and the only author who earned over 100k, also paid like 50k for ads