Why would editing, cover art, etc. be something that can be best done by a middleman though?
It seems more logical to me to see this as a service provided by separate agencies, paid for by either the author or the publisher. Such agencies could be of various sizes and compete on price or a reputation for quality work.
* Such agencies could be of various sizes and compete on price or a reputation for quality work.*
Right, but would an author want to deal with comparing all the agencies and selecting the best one? Is he/she necessarily qualified to do so? Like I said, having a middleman in there is of use at times.
So people will set up companies that work for the authors to set this stuff up, and those companies won't be able to capture most of the proceeds from the authors work, but instead will be forced to price according to the value their work provides to the authors.
It seems more logical to me to see this as a service provided by separate agencies, paid for by either the author or the publisher. Such agencies could be of various sizes and compete on price or a reputation for quality work.