EDC's business was declining when it decided to cut off Amazon sales back in 2012 in a dramatic move to spur a turnaround. And it's worked out: BI reports that the publisher just had its best year ever for net revenue. That's certainly a good sign for other small publishers, but it's pretty clear that EDC's methods won't work for everyone. For instance, one way that EDC makes money is through a a multi-level marketing organization (which EDC tells BI is not the shady kind of MLM), having representatives sell books to their neighbors. That likely isn't a viable option for larger names like Hachette, but it suggests that losing a fight with Amazon may not be the harsh sentence that it's been made out to be.