That's not how publishing works

Through Nomadic Delirium Press, I recently kicked off a project called, The Divided States of America, and I've received a couple of messages from authors telling me that the way I have the project set up isn't how publishing works.
The basic premise is that the US has fallen into several nation-states, and I've created basic backgrounds for each of these nation-states for authors to use as guidelines.  This, however, isn't what they have the problem with.  We're not publishing these stories in an anthology (yet)...we're publishing each story as an e-book, and splitting the profits with the author.  This, apparently, is not how publishing works.  As a publisher, these authors are trying to say that we should publish everything as an anthology.  This is how it's always been done.
Well, this is the small press, and I'm a small press publisher, and we don't always stick to the "rules."  In fact, many of us, especially me, like to break the rules.  And it's my feeling that if I want to experiment with a shared universe that publishes individual e-stories, then I'm going to publish that way.  If an author doesn't like this model, they don't have to submit, but the publishing world is changing dramatically, and those of us in the small press want to be at the forefront of that change, and most of us will just continue to do things the way we want...