Amazing stuff

I was reading a post on The Passive Voice about Author Solutions, and the article by David Gaughran is astounding.  My eyes bugged out when I read this:

That’s not a typo, there is one single person to calculate royalties for 180,000 authors and 225,000 titles. One person! And 732 sales reps with aggressive quotas to sell worthless crap like “web optimized” press releases for $1,299, YouTube advertising packages for $4,099, and Hollywood pitching services for $17,999.

I can't believe people are forking out that kind of money to promote their books.  It seems unreal.  Yet, apparently, it's happening.

It makes me sad.

At the same time, though, I'm comforted by the fact that people like Gaughran are out there.  He's our champion, our defender at the wall, our Spartan at the pass.  He's done real yeoman's work on behalf of indie authors, and the world is a better place with him in it.