So, if I've understood this correctly... wouldn't an author earn much more by selling from their own site? Sell at $5 internationally and it is pure profit? (sell only 2,000 ebooks @ $5 would be $10,000)[/QUOTE]
Exactly. There's a great article on Richard Herley's site (member here and also the author of Penal Colony which is a great book) and he estimates that the actual profit from a 1st time novel under the current system is roughly £800 ($1500)
And that's after all the messing with an agent, marketing rubbish and dealing with editors and all the other steps on the ladder you have to slog through.
If you only sold 100x$5 and you released 2 books a year, you'd still be ahead of the game money-wise and probably less stressed out
