For the last century, publishers controlled the means of book production and book distribution. If authors wanted to reach readers, they had no choice but to kneel before the publishing oligopolists who had the power to determine who got published, and what readers read. The system worked fantastically well for the publishers, [. . .] but less well for the authors they published, and even less well for the vast majority of authors who could never gain access to the cliquey club of the published.