I'm not sure how to interpret this. I get the sense that you believe that Stross and Scalzi are rationalizing what you believe is learned helplessness on their part? If so, that isn't what I believe they are saying. I think that Stross is mostly expressing that publishers contribute significantly more to the bookmaking process than most people think, and that these contributions are actually useful.
What they have said and are saying is that the publishers are so powerful that they, the content creators, don't even get a say in setting prices or demanding better returns, because that's the way it's always been done.
Any requests to them to stand up for their readers (like the recent pubisher price control mechanisms on ebooks or DRM schemes or region controls) results in a "Haha, you're kidding right? We have zero control over what the publishers do with our output".
I'm saying, the publishers have nowhere to go if you dont write the books. The relationship is a total inverse of what it should be. Even music artists, normally thought to be clueless/careless on real world matters, are already taking big stances on DRM and their ability to distribute/sell etc and sticking up for their fans. The writers' backwardness (and plain old ludditism) in this regard is mighty strange.
Music and writing are two very different industries though.
For musicians record sales have never been the revenue stream, a musician gets paid an advance and then they make more money touring selling merchandise and eventually from licensing royalties after the advance and marketing gets paid back.
For writers book sales are pretty much the only revenue stream, they get an advance and a cut of every book sold, then what? Writers can occasionally swing speaking engagements but by and large there's no merch, no tour, movies don't pay people so they can read passages in the background.
If writers aren't in a hurry to drive ebook prices down to $0.50, it's not because they think publishing houses are powerful, it's because they like to eat.
EDIT: Another problem thing to remember is that a song, at 3 minutes or so, can be rapidly iterated hundreds of times, and done so at paying gigs. Listeners can stand in for the editorial process to a degree.
A 400 page novel has a minimum iteration speed of probably a week, and normally several weeks, which the author is not getting paid during, and how many people are willing to read the sometimes subtly different 400 pages a dozen times.
Granted that they are different industries, but still you'd think the putative intelligentsia of our times, our writers and story tellers, especially in sci-fi, would be ahead of the curve and not so far behind it.
Some free suggestions for your site: You should try jazzing it up a bit. Blue is a dull colour. Bright is good. Nowadays any worthwhile site needs to include comments, reviews and ratings, twitter/blippy integration etc. The more social the better. You should also have book page previews and maybe youtube-hosted videos of author interviews/talks. Basically be an information rich site. Branching out to e-magazine publishing say for short stories (maybe get onto the iPad/Kindle that way) can help de-risk the business.
You should also develop a focus on some specific domain like the college textbook domain and market it heavily to that audience (professors/students). Discount cash/gift cards sold at campuses, good referral systems, mobile payment options, iphone/android integration are all good.
As you can see I've been giving this quite a bit of thought myself :), but don't think it's something I want to get into at the moment. Have at it and best of luck to you.
