I can certainly get on board with the goals outlined in the original post. Finding effective ways to influence the market is a big challenge, and will probably require lots of small ways of applying leverage. Regarding publishers, I think positive efforts are more likely in the long run to bear fruit than negative. I.e., thousands of polite messages to publishers saying, "I'd really like to buy more of your books in well-formatted, DRM-free editions at a fair price" are more likely to engender change than thousands of angry emails saying, "What you're doing is driving me straight to the darknet."
On a lot of these issues, for authors and agents, you really have to distinguish between:
- What can I do about my earlier titles?
- What can I do about my existing in-print books? (and)
- What can I try to do in my next book contract?
E-reads is a publisher that is doing good work in bringing o.p. books back into print, in both ebook and print-on-demand format. Their store at Fictionwise is DRM-free, the prices are fair, and the authors get a fair royalty (50% of net received by E-reads), though they must first pay off from royalties a share of the production costs.
One difference between E-reads and outlets such as Smashwords is that these are all books that were published, and thus have passed through an editorial selection process and have had editorial input earlier in their lives.
With existing in-print books, the publisher either does or does not control ebook rights. If so, then there's not much the author can do, except to use moral persuasion with the publisher to do a good job with the ebook. If not, then those books can be considered as above.
On new contracts, it's dicey. It's all well and good to say that authors should withhold their ebook rights. But most publishers now consider ebook rights to be a part of the package. And for most authors, having a publishing contract is far better than not having one. We may see pushback from the agents and authors on this, but that's apt to be a long struggle. Since the publisher has contributed its resources to the editorial quality of the book, not to mention marketing and promotion, they are not entirely unjustified in wanting the ebook benefits also. For the majority of writers, the better path is probably to work at getting better terms, and pushing their publishers to do the ebooks well.
One area that's ripe for growth is getting more authors to recognize the increasing importance of ebooks, and to understand the arguments in favor of doing away with DRM.
The geographical restrictions probably are a result of book contracts giving Publisher the right to publish in certain geographical areas, withholding foreign rights for the agent to try to sell in other areas. It's not a restriction the publishers want; it's for the author's benefit. Ebooks, of course, make a hash of this logic. But it's a lot of work to change old contracts, even if all parties are willing. I think the best course is to get people thinking about doing it differently with new contracts.
Those are just some observations that I hope will be helpful. I have no great ideas on how to organize, but I'm sure others will.