Conversation snippet between publisher and author: "Hey, we haven't gotten the updates from you yet. Everything OK? Need some help? We really need to get this published, while you're still fresh in readers' minds from your last book."<p>Conversation snippet between Amazon and author: "Oh, you wrote a book? We'll let you know if anyone buys it."<p>There are a set of relationships and business practices in old publishing, and there are another set in new publishing. No one piece of either is enough to validate or invalidate the entirety of either set.<p>I would like publishers and editors to continue. I think we would not have had a lot of excellent books published by excellent authors who needed coddling; not all excellent authors are excellent self-starters and business people.<p>I like cheap books, but that doesn't mean I want to see a publishing world where Amazon can and does lay siege to publishers or anyone else.<p>Again, I like cheap books. But if Amazon wins the larger aspects of this conflict, the book business is going to be as free and open as the Apple device and media ecosystem.<p>[Edit: added "Apple" in last sentence. I wish I had an editor.]