You make an excellent point that I fully agree with. Different companies have different target audiences and will therefore provide value in different ways. The

You make an excellent point that I fully agree with. Different companies have different target audiences and will therefore provide value in different ways. The value that O'Reilly can provide many other authors is likely not the kind that the OP needs given the amount of control he likes to maintain; and there's nothing wrong with that. With that said though, it's very important that you fulfill your contractual obligations, which if I take the article at face value it appears O'Reilly did not (although I don't know their side of the story of course). If I enter into a contract filled with a long list of technical details, but include a clause that demands a bowl of M&Ms with all brown ones removed, then on pain of legal action there better be a bowl of M&Ms with all brown ones removed [1]. The author no doubt had specific reasons for his requests that he felt were important to the success of his book. During negotiations there is nothing requiring O'Reilly or any other company to give someone any special considerations. They could just as easily walk away. However once both parties sign a contract agreeing to the terms, both parties are legally required to provide what they agreed to. According to the post that did not happen in this case. [1] http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp - According to David Lee Roth the reason for the M&M clause effectively boils down to he who doesn't pay attention to the small details probably won't pay attention to the truly important ones either; like making sure your arena floor can actually support the weight of the concert equipment (whoops).