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This is just going to drive people to pirate their books.
Looking at the list by Mr. Stross, no wonder they can't make money, the industry is really bloated. And much of that list doesn't seem to apply to e-books, even though he claims only 14-16 don't apply.
4) Marketing (buy ads and displays in stores). Not needed for ebooks
5) Scheduling (so they don't flood bookstores). Perhaps needed, you don't want 500 e-books in the same month, then 2 a next. But then again, not as badly.
8) Advance Reader Copies (is this really necessary? And if anything, this can be sold to people like Baen does)
9) Book design, cover design, front and back flap copy, and cover artwork (While it can apply to e-books, it mostly doesn't as many publishers don't even bother with a cover).
10) CEM delivered to Typesetting (as e-books aren't typeset, you don't need this)
11) Marketing copy (okay, sure). But you don't need to print them up.
12) Review page proofs (PDF from hardcopy, this is done to catch the errors that crept in during test runs of printing). Not needed for e-books.
13) Collate advance orders and order the print run. Not needed for e-books
17) Invoicing and accounting. Sure, if you have hundreds of bookstores this could get hairy. But there's what, maybe half a dozen e-book sellers? A dozen?
So basically it seems like the publishers are still using the same costs and procedures for e-books as printed books, even though they aren't ncessary. I guess because they don't consider them separate products, but merely an extension of an existing one.
But really, most of these costs are solely involved with making a printed book, and all of these costs should only be factored in regarding the physical book. The e-book should be a whole separate entity. Especially as a lot are back catalog titles and thus any costs cost in producing the physical book no longer apply (and have been recouped in the physical print run).
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