I think you are taking these quotes out of context. Charles Stross (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stross) is a writer and the books he is linking to are written by him. He uses the affiliate fees (maybe $250 a year) to help defray the hosting costs of his blog. The affiliate fee issue is only of a small part of his argument against Amazon's business model.
Personally, I think that $9.99 is a fair price to pay for a DRM-encumbered ebook. There should be enough in that amount to pay the author, the publisher, and the retailer, especially given that they should get a larger volume with the lower price-point. Unfortunately, it looks like the allocations between the three parties are way out of wack.
Personally, I think that $9.99 is a fair price to pay for a DRM-encumbered ebook. There should be enough in that amount to pay the author, the publisher, and the retailer, especially given that they should get a larger volume with the lower price-point. Unfortunately, it looks like the allocations between the three parties are way out of wack.