Apple is apparently in hot water for colluding with the book market on pricing. Making it more difficult for non-participating companies to join the ebooks library. Our concern should be “can I buy the content I want easily and read it on software/hardware that I want without the feeling of being a dirty pirating hippy?”
Today I can support the artists I like in order to ensure either they’re paid what their worth for the works I want. That means that if I believe that buying my favorite author on iTunes (or Amazon) is neither beneficial nor economically supportive to the author, I may be less inclined to actually fork over hard-earned money (even it’s merely an hours worth of labor) to the conglomerate that profits from the thousands of hours devoted to compelling the reader to believe another universe exists.
There’s a distinction between the author and the publisher, in an age of Tumblr where an author can easily clarify their position. The reader can communicate with the author, understand where they’re coming from; and in cases where the author is in a bad position, can attempt to benefit the writer to the exclusion of the publisher.
The internet (and the many environments within it) has managed to expand the digital consciousness beyond the simple list of books that publishers think might profit, expanding to a list of esoteric discussions that would otherwise be left behind while people focus on the simple concepts espoused by such literary keystones as Twilight.
Yes, I went there.