Readers discuss e-book pricing and the future of publishing.

The Letter

To the Editor:

Re “U.S. Sues Apple and Publishers Over E-Book Pricing” (Business Day, April 12):

The Justice Department’s price-fixing suit against five major publishers and Apple — effectively allowing Amazon to decide how much books will cost — presents not an economic crossroads but a cultural one.

Book publishing, one of the world’s signal achievements, is predicated upon diversity: the diversity of tastes and backgrounds, of editors taking chances on undiscovered writers and promoting them alongside marquee authors. The dominance of this special industry by any single company will overly determine its cultural output and, within only a handful of years, erode its prized diversity. This diversity is why readers turn to books in the first place.

The book industry may be (correctly or incorrectly) chastised by a Justice Department that perceives wrongdoing under the law. But the primary issue remains: How will each publisher independently confront the existential threat posed by a single bookseller with such unprecedented power? How will each publisher protect the best interests of readers everywhere?

Only a competitive marketplace can balance the industry’s economic viability with its cultural interests, and support its coexistence with developing technologies (which, after all, are still in their infancy).