The bottom line

Hachette have "leaked" a memo explaining why they are necessary.

One of the many germane comments about the article is this, from Linton Robinson:

BTW, anecdotally, of the writers I know who are making decent livings from published books, about half are either letting contracts lapse or heavily considering it, while putting out books on their own.

This is what will kill Hachette and the rest. They cannot compete with the independent author on price. It is as simple as that. The indie has no back office to support. He makes more from an ebook at $3 than he would through Hachette were it priced at $10. He could even sell it from his own site and keep the whole $3!

The big publishing houses are nearly all owned by giant media corporations for whom book-publishing is small potatoes and whose only interest is the bottom line. The future is not hard to predict.

Some good people will have to find other jobs, which is tough. As for the rest ...