Here's a suggestion which publishers (who are completely tied to paper) will happily ignore: I think HC buyers should always get the eBook version for free with their purchase. They could then donate the HC to a local library, if they don't want to store it, which would make it that much more likely that others would read it and either buy it or look for other books by that author (or editor or whatever).
Of course, the problem is, what format should be used? Maybe Adobe could get some publishers to go along with this idea as a way to popularize their new standard. I wish it would not be DRM, but I suppose it would be.
Then again, I also think you should be able to send in some kind of proof of purchase (upc code, perhaps?
) and get a massively discounted eBook version of any book you own (e.g. US$2-3/book). I could see publishers being more interested in this one, as it's a way to get more money out of people who've already paid them, for very little investment. However, this might force them to pay the authors something for this extra copy, as well.
Thoughts?