Dear Author’s Jane Litte, romance blogger of the first rank, published an interesting take on IPG’s public spat with Amazon, in which the Internet retailer removed the “Buy” buttons from IPG’s books and IPG responded with a request to the public to stop buying from Amazon.

Jane’s response was simple. “No.”

She says that IPG and publishers in general have done very little to support readers and haven’t earned the kind of outrage that they seem to expect.

According to Litte, publishers haven’t provided an alternative to Amazon by creating their own distribution and haven’t provided DRM-free ebooks or books in formats that could be side-loaded onto Kindles. Therefore, they can’t expect people to stop using Amazon.

What Litte believes publishers have done is drag their feet on the adoption of ebooks, insisted on DRM that lock readers into a relationship with Amazon or Barnes & Noble, adopted the agency model to prop up falling prices, eliminated reader loyalty programs, turned their backs on libraries and other forms of lending, instituted a “licensing” model that eliminates real ebook ownership, and made it virtually impossible to purchase books while out of the country.

We recognize that an Amazon as the exclusive vendor of books would be bad for us but what are publishers doing about it? Why is it the reader, the only party who does not make money in this equation, have to be the one to take the financial hit in the fight against Amazon?

Her advice?

Here are some recommendations to win over readers. Eliminate DRM. Sell direct to Kindle owners using a mobi format. Remove agency pricing. Allow the return of readership rewards programs, loyalty programs, discounts as print readers are allowed. Wholeheartedly embrace the idea of lending and sharing of digital books. Allow discovery of books via libraries. Eliminate geographical restrictions. Encourage the concept of ownership to increase value of the digital books to the readers.

via Dear Author