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So Amazon takes 50% off each sale...so what? Not to disparage the author, but this is a book that wouldn't have even been written without Amazon. 20 years ago he'd have to shop his book around trying to find someone, anyone, to publish it. Then if some obscure, backwater press happens to pick it up, he'd get 10 cents on the dollar. If he's lucky, his book might be packaged with a few better selling titles and actually be shipped out to real bookstores.
Consider the history:
20 years ago: No ebooks and no online retailers. If you want a book, drive to a brick and mortar bookstore. Even Project Gutenberg didn't reach 1,000 books until 1996 and it wasn't until 2003 that they reached 10,000.
10 years ago: No major publisher sells ebooks.
5 years ago: No ereaders. The first Kindle came out in 2007 for a whopping $400 and then only with 90,000 titles.
Only in the few years has it been possible for a relatively obscure book such as this to reach any significant audience. Love it or hate it, Amazon is a big part of this, so why shouldn't they get half the price?
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