BigBestseller?
Depends who, perhaps. If I was Stephen King, I'd possibly be considering keeping all electronic rights for myself, and selling to whoever I wanted to.
Rowling's agent somehow needs to beat some sense into her, although of course she has enough money to do whatever crazy she wants.
In fact, if there were a group of authors like this peeved with publishing they could go their own way, electronically. That's possibly what makes them the most money on that part. That means they get all the money, minus whatever expenses and bookshop cuts if they wanted to sell at Fictionwise, Amazon, etc.
'Started thinking about' does not equal action, or competent corporate management.
There were 9 year old kids that did the same thing, the thinking about.
Asking nicely hasn't worked, nor simple explanation.
Neither has a bunch of smart people giving them advice. Some more lambasting earlier might have been good for them.
The Tor example is a good case study of executive incompetence as far as their corporate masters, certainly!
3 years later...
How many industries take years to get small deals done like that, in general?