Last Sunday Jonathan Galassi, president of book publisher Farrah, Straus & Giroux, wrote an editorial for the New York Times about the value that book publishers provide. It's predictably defensive about publisher's right to profit from the work of writers and to retain new rights like those for e-books. Mr. Galassi cites the expenses incurred in bringing a book to market: editing, design, marketing, publicity, sales and so forth. And he takes it even a step further, writing: