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You're forgetting that the independents will still be there, and believe me, if you're buying e-books from them, they'll be plenty vocal in telling the industry "Hey, we're selling e-books like gangbusters!" The big publishers will get the word, they're not living in a complete vacuum, and they don't just talk amongst themselves. They will understand: "People are buying e-books... just not from us."
When they come to that realization, they'll have little choice but to sell e-books the way the independents sell them, or let the market slip away.
As for us, we have to decide what's important to us: Whether we buy the latest Tom Clancy book, or whether we buy it only if it's an e-book. That kind of decision gets the big publisher's attention... especially if you take the time to tell them so, at the bookseller, in a letter to the author (as Neko suggests) or their publisher, or in a books forum that you know they monitor. If you want e-books that bad, vote with your wallet.
Because one thing is true: If you knuckle under and buy whatever they give you, they'll have absolutely no reason to do anything different.
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