John Sargent, Macmillan CEO, Joins the Random House Rant Against Wylie/Amazon

John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan, has joined the powers-that-be at Random House in being apoplectic about the Wylie/Amazon deal. You can tell these guys feel quite powerless - rather like Lear raging against the elements. But they are not powerless. They could stop much of what they hate simply by giving authors the 50% royalty they deserve for eBooks, including digital editions of backlist titles. By not doing so, they have invited the current situation.