I can tell you as an author whose publisher is not only making his ebooks unavailable, but also tying up the rights to prevent me from doing it myself, that it is not only lost income for everybody, it's terrible for an author's career. But those authors may actually be glad the publisher didn't release ebooks, once the smoke clears. Because authors will soon see that they own the content--not publishers. And they can set their own prices irregardless of protectionist schemes or corporate goals. They will price at what they think is fair. If the deal is paper only, it's much likely to go out of print faster and allow the writer to get rights back. Publisher's contracts have become increasingly aggressive.
When Amazon offers a 70 percent royalty for ebooks, and you can walk away at any time, and offer you the largest ebook audience on the planet, Amazon is becoming the most generous publisher on the planet. Or, you can get your ten grand or so and let the publisher tie up your content for years and years. Few authors are talking about this...but publishers are going to be sitting pretty either way if they control erights and are only going to pay authors 15 percent--under deals that are virtually eternal. (Yes, many of the clauses allow the publisher to maintain licensing rights if a laughable minimum is reached, such as a couple hundred bucks in six months or a minimal number of copies sold).
What's scary is very few agents are even talking about it. And they're supposed to be fighting for the writers.
Scott Nicholson
http://hauntedcomputerbooks.blogspot.com