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said:

On the one hand, Dr. Hendrix

On the one hand, Dr. Hendrix (and I respect Shetterly and so believe that this was indeed Hendrix speaking) is an established writer, and has had respectable sales. At the Houston Worldcon his autograph lines were of significant length. He's no wannabe. On the other hand, you'll note that of the comments to his statement, virtually ALL of them distanced themselves from Hendrix in this matter. Vice-president or no (and he explicitly denied having any desire to go further up the ladder), he does not seem to represent the majority opinion of SFWA. As for his concern about "the ongoing and increasing sublimation of the private space of consciousness into public netspace," I'm not crazy about it either, but it is an emerging reality. It does not, however, inherently threaten the relationship between publisher and writer. Nor does podcasting a novel for free, as Dragon Moon's increased sales demonstrate. What do affect that relationship are (a) economics and (b) power. It was ever thus. The April Fool's Day Massacre showed that "the times they are a-changin'" with respect to both ... and thus we saw both the Junkies' power play (hey, I was one of 'em; go team! -- but that's what it was) and, evidently, the Entrenched Monoliths' counter-play. The answer to change is not merely to protest the change. Rather, you either make proposals that will guide the change among viable lines (and yes, everyone will have to agree what "viable" means) or propose a different change that overtakes the first one. The Rat Pack of Podcast Novels is indeed changing things. We'll just have to see how the change can be handled. My word. Sounds like one of the core values of science fiction, doesn't it?