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This is a very fundamental issue for Tradpub, though I don't know to what extent they are facing up to it. I agree with you that Tradpub in its current form cannot survive on a remuneration model which would allow a sustainable subscription service. Their competitor, Amazon, can. This is because they are structured for a publishing industry that quite simply no longer exists. As others have pointed out, their costs are simply unsustainable, despite them paying most of their authors a pittance. What they seem to be doing is trying to differentiate their books from Indies, claiming such superior quality that they are not in fact in competition. If this were true to any significant degree, this would be a viable strategy. But unfortunately for them their stint as gatekeepers does not seem to have resulted in them having superior quality books. Their choice is compete or die. They have to re-structure their businesses so they can compete, or reach some accommodation with Amazon which leaves them with some significant role. I don't know that Amazon would be all that interested in the latter, but the more time passes the worse the position of tradpub. Don't get me wrong. They are not going to vanish overnight They have significant and valuable backlists and the vast majority of the top best selling authors. But whilst their heads remain firmly buried in the sand their position grows weaker and weaker with the passage of time.
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