Despite everything the publishers attempted to drive up the price of ebooks, then, Amazon still succeeded in driving them down. That’s good news for price-sensitive readers, and undoubtedly helps democratize reading and access to books. And it’s terrific for authors who can find an audience on the platform, including the thousands of writers making the kind of middle-class living traditional publishing finds it increasingly hard to deliver. But of course, this phenomenon will be temporary: Amazon’s management doesn’t give writers such a big share because it cares about them, but as a way of weakening traditional publishers. Once they’ve done so and those authors have no other options, they’ll be shaken down too.