&gt; As to business models.... I'm afraid I never cease to be amazed
&gt; how many people outside publishing think they know
&gt; how it ought to be run as a business. 

My business, until recently, was writing and editing (newspaper journalism, for the best part of 20 years), so I fully understand an industry struggling to build an alternative business model for a digital marketplace.

&gt; You seem to want to pay the less than paperback price 
&gt; for a hardback book instead of the less than hardback price.

I've no idea where you got that impression. I have no view on what the price of books should be. The market will decide. My comments (a bit academic, perhaps) were about relative perceived value. You don't need to be quite so combative, or dismissive. I support your broad arguments and aims - I was merely trying to make a civil contribution to an important debate. As I said above, and you ignored, I have no problem with the printed book (hardback/paperback) business model. Indeed I support it, and I think it still has legs.

My former industry (regional newspapers) has, to all intents and purposes, died because it failed to find a digital model that worked. Local papers still exist, but are fewer in number and a shadow of their former selves. So it goes. Books face no such danger, of course, but the business model must change quickly, or the industry, and authors, will suffer greatly in the short-to-medium term. Just my opinion.