This article is really pushing the fact that books have become commodities. They no longer compete on quality but rather with cost. Pricing is less around value and more on cost plus.
I personally believe that there are salient differences between books (quality, time spent, book cover, number of pages, etc.) and having a big name publisher can open many opportunities for new authors just like in the music industry. I guess it would be more accurate to say that publishers can free up authors' time by using the publisher's resources for marketing and distribution, etc.
On a site like Hacker News, we take the success of product differentiation for granted. The best product will differentiate itself based on sound understanding of product development and will thus succeed. It would be unsafe to assume that business aspects are irrelevant.
I personally believe that there are salient differences between books (quality, time spent, book cover, number of pages, etc.) and having a big name publisher can open many opportunities for new authors just like in the music industry. I guess it would be more accurate to say that publishers can free up authors' time by using the publisher's resources for marketing and distribution, etc.
On a site like Hacker News, we take the success of product differentiation for granted. The best product will differentiate itself based on sound understanding of product development and will thus succeed. It would be unsafe to assume that business aspects are irrelevant.