HARD TIMES FOR MIDDLEMEN in the publishing industry. And I note this bit in particular:

But more telling is that these same publishers are crying because Amazon is “gnawing away at the services that publishers, critics and agents used to provide.” Used to provide is the key phrase here. Past tense. As in, these are services that were once provided by publishers, critics and agents and are no longer. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? And, frankly, can you blame an author for signing with Amazon if it does offer the editing, copy editing and proofreading, promotion and placement legacy publishers used to and no longer do? I can’t.

Kind of like the news media, publishers hollowed out their value-added segments when their positions seemed unassailable, because doing so saved money and increased profits. But without the value added, there’s not much reason to keep them in the loop once new alternatives appear.