Remember, it's just these publishers who have adopted the agency model. Many of us continue to operate under a standard distribution model, allowing the distributor to offer discounts from our standard list prices.
As for whether publishers care about authors, authors are our suppliers. As such, we need them to continue to produce or we'd be out of business. Obviously publishers "care" more about some authors than others (if J.K. Rowling decided to publish with BooksForABuck.com, I'd care a lot, hint-hint, JK.) But obviously publishers are in business to make profits. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. What is a bad thing is if they make pricing decisions that don't make sense for themselves or the industry.
I personally believe in affordable eBook pricing and in allowing distributors flexibility in offering discounts. Then again, I don't have a hardback fanbase I need to mollify.
Rob Preece
Publisher,
www.BooksForABuck.com