[MaggieScratch]

This model assumes that most readers find their reading material online. I would suggest this is not the case. Many people go to bookstores and browse until they find something that catches their interest. Bookstores don't carry all the books that are published. The publishers and/or distributors send salespeople to the bookstore buyers, and these salespeople have to "sell" the buyer. The buyer then decides which books they will carry in their bookstore.

No bookstore can carry every book. How will the bookstores decide which books to carry? Who will pay the salespeople? Is that something else the author is expected to pay for upfront?

"Let the author worry about selling the books?" Who's going to write the books while the authors are busy selling them?

There is more to the editorial process than simple copy editing and proofreading. It is a collaborative process between the author and the editor and meant to polish and improve the work. And there is more to selling a book than tossing it up on the Internet and hoping people find it. Publishers have the cash flow to allow the authors to be paid, the salespeople to be paid, the editors to be paid, and production costs to be paid, all while the process of bringing a book to the paying customer, the reader, is going on. To expect authors pay it all upfront is just nuts.

If people really want to publish their stuff and don't want to take the time to polish their own work until it is acceptable to a commercial publisher, there are plenty of ways to do it now. Lulu, the Kindle store--whatever it's called, and Smashwords are the most author-friendly; AuthorHouse and its various "imprints," and oh yeah, PublishAmerica, for those too naive to know what they are doing. Caveat emptor; or when the author becomes the customer rather than the reader, caveat scrivener.