[WalterBright]

> If they manage to force publishers out of the picture, they will force writers to reduce their income as far as they can push it. Which in a world without publishers is very, very far.

This seems an odd statement to me. It implies that publishers pay authors well only because publishers are inherently nice guys. Isn't it more likely that publishers pay authors well because authors deliver the goods, and would not otherwise?

If Amazon was the publisher, why wouldn't Amazon also pay a bestselling author well in order to entice that author to produce more/better books, which Amazon can make more money off of?

[koide]

No, this has nothing to do with niceness or evilness. It's just monopoly versus competition. If Amazon kills every publisher, there will be incentives for Amazon to be less nice than otherwise.

[WalterBright]

Thereby giving incentives for new publishers to arise!