One possibility some self-publishing writers are using is to also sell traditional products of some sort, e.g. limited-edition letterpress or handmade editions of their books.
It does lead to different economics, since it rewards a writer by how many ardent fans they have (preferably well-off ardent fans who're collector types), rather than total readership.
Not sure how many total writers it'll be able to support; I suppose we'll see. But then, I'm not sure how many total writers traditional publishing would be able to support either, even absent piracy; the industry seems to be converging on a model that picks and heavily advertises relatively few large blockbusters per year, which only serves to support a fairly small number of writers, though it admittedly supports each of the lucky few quite handsomely.
It does lead to different economics, since it rewards a writer by how many ardent fans they have (preferably well-off ardent fans who're collector types), rather than total readership.
Not sure how many total writers it'll be able to support; I suppose we'll see. But then, I'm not sure how many total writers traditional publishing would be able to support either, even absent piracy; the industry seems to be converging on a model that picks and heavily advertises relatively few large blockbusters per year, which only serves to support a fairly small number of writers, though it admittedly supports each of the lucky few quite handsomely.