[DiapDealer]

Who cares if someone wants to treat authors to a special snowflake wine 'n' dine weekend--Hachette OR Amazon/Bezos? There is no double-standard. It's OK to believe in your heart of hearts that books and authors are special--and even to treat them as such. I happen to believe the same thing myself. The point is that authors/books are not entitled to any special treatment. Especially with regard to contracts between publishers and distributors. Occasionally getting some special treatment for what you do does not entitle you to special treatment for what you do.

You write things that you need people to buy in order to support yourself by writing things you need people to buy. Like it or not, a good chunk of that process is regular 'ol consumerism, distribution contracts, and retail.