[Steven Lyle Jordan]

The arrival of the digital document era has brought incredible change to publishing, and to its driving force, the writer. Writers have realized that their options have expanded, and the traditional business models are now in flux, giving them the opportunity to redefine their role and importance in the historic publishing equation. But at the same time, the market itself has undergone changes that have not all been in the writers’ best interests. Caught between two ends of a changing market, the question is: Is this actually a good time to be a writer?

On one hand, writers are now in a position of taking advantage of the latest tools offered by computers, the web and new business models (such as those at companies like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords) to step out of the traditional publishing process, wherein they would produce a work, and the publishing house would do the rest of the work of polishing, finishing and distributing, in exchange for a piece of the profit (the first, and usually the biggest, piece). Though their skills at the many tasks formerly handled by production houses may not be equal to those houses, in many cases writers can make a good showing of themselves, and produce a professional-quality work comparable to production house products.

This, in itself, does not necessarily mean potentially high profits for a writer, until you take digital documents into consideration. Ebooks can be produced and distributed for virtually zero cost, once the costs of writing and finishing are done. So each sale is essentially pure profit, after the effort of writing and finishing the book is covered. It would seem that the writer has the potential to make a healthy profit from their work, earning more from their work, per book, than they would receive through a publisher.

Writers also have a potentially wider audience to sell to, since their work can be made available in all corners of the world that are reached by the web. Further, certain geographic restrictions, which had been put in place to protect publishers, do not apply directly to writers, opening up markets that their publishers could not breach. With an expanded market, it would seem the author can only benefit in the new era.

On the other hand, these selfsame changes have impacted the market—the buyers—in a significant way, and they are hell-bent on taking advantage of it. The most significant of these changes is the ability to copy a digital document, at virtually zero cost, thereby removing the exclusivity of product that used to be the cornerstone of the product sales system. The writer is no longer the exclusive provider of their own work; once it is obtained by any other party, that party can potentially produce an exact copy of that work and become another provider of that work, and can do so at their own terms.

The second most significant change to the market, is the nigh-instantaneous, virtually unstoppable communication of digital documents through the web. As easily as a party can make copies of a writer’s digital document, that party can as easily disseminate it to the same worldwide audience as the writer. And the writer has absolutely no way to prevent this from happening, once the document is out of their hands. Suddenly, the potential for profit that the writer hoped for can be destroyed by one person on the far side of the world, who decides to give the writer’s work to anyone who wants it.

In the past, when new technology or social systems came along and threatened to turn the world on its ear, governing bodies would step forward to create order, in the form of new and amended laws designed to create a workable environment for the new tech or systems, and to protect those who used them, and those who didn’t. Compromises were sometimes difficult and expensive, and often involved the development of newer technologies or social systems to complement the ones already developed (for instance, the development of traffic light systems to help control the newly-introduced automobile).

As digital documents have been developed, governing bodies have made an effort to write or amend laws to protect those who used, and who didn’t use, digital documents. However, the market quickly decided that it liked the free-reproduction and easy-distribution aspects of digital documents, and did not want to see any change to that system. And thanks to the already lax controls placed upon the web, they realized that they did not have to accept the new laws. The market proceeded to ignore the laws, and their relatively low chance of being punished for it, and flaunt their newfound ability in public and private… much like speeders deliberately running red lights, because they know there are no traffic cops, and therefore little or no chance of being caught. And those scofflaws can easily use the web to gather disciples for their cause, using scare tactics (mostly transparent but pathetically effective Big Brother rants) to convince others of the impending doom and ruination that the world will suffer if new laws governing digital property are enacted.

Governments are aware of this, as are writers and other producers of content, and they are working to rewrite and amend the laws to tighten control and bring law to the system. However, the nature of the web makes such an effort essentially a global one, thereby demanding the communication and cooperation of literally every governing body whose people can reach the web. And considering the track record of global governing bodies to work together to solve common problems, there is virtually no hope that such a concordance would be reached within 50 years… if ever. And unless the governments act, the market will continue to flaunt their ability to ignore or break the law, and products will not be protected.

This is the world in which the writer finds him or herself: A world in which the only thing easier than creating and disseminating their work, is the market’s ability and willingness to steal that same work; a world in which the potential of becoming independent producers, and earning a profit free of middlemen, is being robbed by the very market it hopes to profit from, a market that pretends to be Robin Hood, but in reality robs gleefully from the rich, the poor, and everyone in-between, and does not care about giving anything back; a world in which the chance that writer’s government will manage to provide protections of their digital property before the year 2050 is virtually nil. And as for those who simply hope for a little fame from their efforts, they get exactly that… in a world where the apocryphal “fifteen minutes of fame” has been distilled down to fifteen seconds.

In short, the immediate future for writers looks very bleak. They have been rendered an endangered species by the unstoppable advancement of technology, the uncaring, uncontrollable whims of a greedy market, and the inability of their governments to protect them.

And what about the long-term future for writers? Should they expect better, someday down the line? Well, as stated above, when changes to society or technology create chaos, governments eventually rewrite the laws to rein chaos in. There is still the possibility that governments will manage to do this, though, as I suggested, it will probably take more than a few decades for them to manage it.

In other cases where such laws have been created to force order, they were rarely accepted by the market without disagreement or dissension. In some cases, this meant further tweaking of the laws to better satisfy all parties. But in the same way drivers eventually learned to stop at red lights, whether in understanding of the safety involved in doing so, or simply to avoid getting a ticket, digital document users can learn to obey digital document laws, whether it is to guarantee the protection of someone’s property, or simply to prevent their being fined.

And in time, the market gets used to the laws, if grudgingly, and after awhile, even stops questioning them; though occasionally they will reminisce fondly about the lawless days of yesteryear when no one was safe… and wasn’t that a fine time?

At that point, writers will be able to write, and be assured that their property will be protected. They will be able to earn a fair wage from their work, and function as productive members of a society that has been largely taught to be fair with them. They will feel valued, and not leeched upon, by the society which they labor to serve. A balance will be restored, and society can begin to consider the next form of technology or social order that will turn them on their ear.

Space mining rights would be my guess. That, or the latest version of the food nutrition pyramid—it’ll probably be a dodecahedron by then…