I attended a video games conference here in Australia last week. There was an interesting session about the pro's and con's of using a publisher in the mobile space.<p>I learnt that they don't pay large advances, you have to develop your game first, nor will they put a marketing spend in writing, they want to see how the game will do first.<p>As far as I can tell, the only reason you would work with them is that they have the phone number of the guy in charge of the app store and can call him and beg for your app to be featured.<p>This piece reminded me of it because I think these print guys need to have a look at what a traditional publisher is actually going to do for them. How much marketing money are they going to spend? How are they going to get your book in front of people? How much risk are they willing to take for their share of the success.<p>You have to look at what you actual want a publisher to do for you, and make sure they deliver. You can't just go to them because "that's how its always been".