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Apple is in a legal case filed against them over e-book pricing.  On April 12, 2012 Nick Wingfield of the New York Times explains why Apple is most likely not to be the loser in this battle with Amazon.  This legal case began by the Justice Department on Apple; the Department set up lawsuits against Apple and five other publishers who attempted to use e-books to reduce Amazon’s success in digital media and devices with the Kindle.

In regards to e-books, Apple versus Amazon’s main product battle is between the Kindle (and other e-books) versus Apple’s iPad.  Contrary to what the lawsuit may have proposed for Apple, iPad appeal and popularity did not decrease even as e-book sales continue to increase.  In fact the iPad is even more appealing/beneficial for Apple according to James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, who says, “his company indicated that games, Web browsing, Facebook and other applications are bigger parts of the appeal of the iPad than e-books.”  The Justice Department did not hurt Apple the way they had hoped.

Book publishers are worried that, with the lawsuit potentially favoring Apple, low pricing by Amazon may drive them out of business.  Local book publishing president for White Cloud Press Steve Scholl also gave a lecture to the History of Publishing class about the “Perils of Publishing.”  Steve explained the process which a printed book goes through, going from the publisher to distributors/wholesales, bookstores, and consumers loses much money – the publishing company, if it is small, does not profit much from a few books.  Similar to the Apple versus Amazon e-book sales, Steve also discussed how the rise and popularity of electronic books decreases sales of printed books.

Nicholas Economides, a professor of economics at New York University thinks the lawsuit is a “strong case.”  Book publishers are worrying that returns of low pricing by Amazon will drive them out of business, similar concerns of White Cloud Press president Steve Scholl.  Still, so many are in favor of Apple’s win – or if not win, not giving up easily.  Mark Lemley, a law professor at Stanford University says “Apple has a history of being fairly aggressive in litigation.”

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For authors and editors, the call is a bit direr. As more and more books go digital and the sales of regular books are shrinking, authors may find themselves in an increasingly limited industry. Editors must report to editorial boards, which are more driven by bottom-line productivity, thus editors spend less time developing authors’ niche talent. And as book publishers scramble to make ends meet, authors will have an even smaller pool of capital to count on for up-front costs. This means the only people who will be authoring books are the same people who already have enough money to survive on an artist’s salary. The good news is that there is still a wide range of opportunities to write, and to publish, without necessarily becoming an author.

One example which recently came to my attention is ghostwriting. With ghostwriting, you don’t end up with any of the critical acclaim or public accreditation of your work; however, “Ghostwriting is one of the more likely ways to get to write for large and important audiences” (Nemko). http://money.usnews.com/money/ Blogs are another example of an excellent opportunity to write. And surprisingly, these different options appear to pay very well.

Apart from the production of books, there is another important and less understood aspect of this whole industry: the reader. Regular people who read an occasional book or magazine are the forgotten and unknown variable in all of this. The times continue to change because of – or in spite of – the regular people, sustaining the status quo, or railing against it. But in the land of change, what becomes of the status quo? Or, for that matter, regular people? Well, they must change too. And in fact, people are finding new ways to adapt, downloading free content online, accessing content on the go with mobile devices, and still picking up the occasional book or magazine from the discount wrack. As the regular person becomes more technology savvy, they must keep in mind that books are still just another form of technology. We may consider books as this great vestige of the old world knowledge gatherers, and simply expect them to be a permanent fixture in our culture. But the blatant truth is that technology changes, and with it people develop all new career expectations and cultural icons.

For now, books and book publishing are safe. But what are they really doing for the world? Is there such a thing as a sustainable book publisher? Is there a model for knowledge acquisition that doesn’t involve destroying life and the planet? Is it possible to know all about something without destroying that thing? Or is knowledge limited by the very limits of one’s destructiveness?

To learn how a book was made, I destroyed the book. I used a razor and cut it apart at the seams and peeled back the inside cover to see all the different parts. So it would appear that my knowledge about that book is directly proportional to my destruction of it. Our only way to know things is by taking them apart, but this could change. People could develop a new way to acquire knowledge by putting things together. Instead of thinking about publishers, marketers, authors, editors, and their audience as all separate entities with their own isolated conditions and fragmented problems, perhaps we could discover something new about all of these groups by putting them together as one. Ultimately, we are all regular people, trying to adapt and hack out a living. In that way, our motivations are all the same.

What does all this mean for the young upstart, trying to become a writer/editor? The author/editor relationship is apparently changing; and furthermore, there is no “how to” guide on writing the next great American novel, and much less on finding the perfect niche, or the perfect author/editor relationship. But, the best advice I’ve gotten so far is to just keep writing. And reading. There’s still work to be done.

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After going to the “From Print to Pixels” event at the Ashland Public Library, I’m convinced of one thing: e-books are just allowing us to continue the legacy of paranoia. The speaker pointed out that people have been saying the same things about every new technology since before the printing press. He even cited Socrates in a discussion of how the alphabet and writing in general weren’t always widely accepted concepts when people started shifting from spoken to written traditions.

As the youngest person in the room, I enjoyed hearing everyone around me talk about the digital shift since I typically only hear from people my own age. Most of them had some level of concern over how the digital shift in the publication world would affect the reading experience. I, however, seemed to be the only one who didn’t own an e-reader. For fearing a future with technology, they’ve certainly embraced it on various levels.  None of them said they exclusively read on their readers (except one who had to due to sight issues) but they’re still supporting the shift by using them.

That’s not to say I’m against people accepting what seems inevitable at this point. It’s just interesting to hear people speak against the digital age when they’ve embraced it, to whatever extent.

On a slightly different note, one person mentioned that, through the technologies available, he’s been able to make friends around the world. Many people discover this opportunity, though not necessarily thanks to reading alone. With the countless forums and sites for all interests (books included), the world has shrunk thanks to the internet, reminding me of a quote by Marshall McLuhan cited early in the presentation: “Print technology created the public.” While print technology may have created the public, but the digital shift has expanded it beyond city limits–for good or bad, I’m still not 100% sure.