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I was initially mildly favorable towards the big 6 (now 5) publishers. I didn't much think of them but they did publish books I liked. Then they started publishing books in trade paperback format before the MM paperback release in a blatant money grab. A horrible format, all the inconveniences of size and weight of a hardback but as cheaply made as a paperback but at twice the price. Now I had to wait twice as long to get the MM paperback format I prefered. My opinion of the publishers dropped considerably. Then the Agency conspiracy that sharply raised my book prices and more or less killed off some smaller ebook stores. At that point I became actively hostile towards the big publishers. Then I heard details about the standard contracts they force on authors, essentially gaining eternal rights to their books at really crappy royalties as well as harmful to authors clauses such as non-compete clauses and others. My opinion now of the big 5 couldn't get much lower. They tried to screw the customers with higher prices, screw Amazon by trying to interfer with and harm their business and screw the authors with rights grabs. At this point I cheer anything that takes power away from them.
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