Then remove "their own" from my sentence. What the reader wants is more important than what the author wants.
It doesn't matter - they're still printing copies of my book to whatever quality level they decide on, and using whatever bookkeeping shenanigans they choose to pay me and my publisher. Bull. The readers want 99 cent books - ain't getting 'em from me. I see a shoddy looking book and I think shoddy writing, shoddy editing - that's not the reputation I want. So no - I'm not willing to let somebody other than my publisher decide on the quality level. My books are not widgets to sell fast and cheap with crap packaging.
Good, then we agree on what happens and only disagree on whether or not it should happen. The fact that this stereotype exists is yet another market failure. It persists because few people are willing to risk high quality products on a new system if the new system is associated with low quality. The new system continues to be associated with low quality because high quality products are withheld from it. That is a textbook type of market failure that is not unique to publishing. Sometimes, an external factor is needed in order to force people to change. Maybe Amazon printing out-of-stock books on demand is a precursor to that.
Maybe Amazon better talk to its lawyers before they start printing books they have no right to print. Because I know exactly where I'd be headed if they ever did that with my books.
I assume that they will call in their lawyers, write the contracts, and order publishers to sign the contracts and to get their writers to sign whatever further contracts are needed. As I see it, the legal action here wouldn't be about the immediate rights--they'll have those all nicely signed and locked down. I think that it would be about whether the bullying to get them all nicely signed, and the consequences to those who refuse to sign, would qualify as illegal monopoly behavior.
I have no doubt that eventually, hopefully sooner and not later, Amazon will step far enough over the line to get their ass handed to them by the courts. I'll mark that day on the calendar, in BIG RED LETTERS.
