[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Ankh

I want authors NOT to sell their rights, to be in control and in direct link with their readers.

In the current model, authors do not sell their rights. They license a particular set of rights for a defined period.

A book contract is a license. The publisher licenses the rights to issue a book, in forms specified by the contract, for a period specified by the contract. The form may be hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback, print-on-demand edition, ebook, or some combination of the above. The period is governed by sales. If the book is allowed to go out of print (and the contract will define levels of ebook and print-on-demand sales that qualify as still in print), the author may ask that the rights revert, and attempt to resell the book to another publisher or self-publish.

The authors retain any rights not specifically covered in the contract, like foreign rights (sales to a foreign publisher) and movie and TV adaptation rights.

A good admin definitely costs less than mentioned "helpful people" under the current system, and who authors decide to bring on board, and how they decide to run their business and spend the money is up to them. A sticker from big name of the publishing industry, especially the "big five" behind the agency pricing scam is undesirable ballast, a dinosaur destined for extinction. I prefer to support art, not "the industry".

If you want art to be created, an industry around it is almost inevitable.

Artists want to create art, and get paid enough to make a living doing it. A writer simply wants to write books, and hopefully make enough to earn a living doing it. Most don't want to do all of the other things needed to get the book to a form others can read, and may be no good at them if they try.

It's why we have an industry: agents to represent their work to publishers interested in try to sell what they do, editors to work with them to make the finished product as good as possible, artists to create covers with compelling images to get people to look at (and possibly buy) the book, people to prepare the final manuscript for publication in print or electronic format, printers to print and bind the printed version and bookstores to sell it, as well as web vendors to provide the electronic versions.

All of those "helpful people" you denigrate are helpful - if they weren't there, the book would never reach you.

Assuming all authors can take the kind of control you posit is wildly optimistic. Assuming they should want to is profoundly silly. Most writers would rather spend their time and effort writing.
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Dennis