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Publishers Delay E-Book Releases by 4 Months

Simon & Schuster, Hachette protest deep discounting of e-books

By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 9, 2009 7:31 AM CST

(Newser) – Taking a stand against the cut-rate $9.99 pricing in the fast-growing e-book market, two prominent publishers will start delaying release of e-books until four months after hardcovers come out. "The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback," Simon & Schuster tells the Wall Street Journal, and Hachette is following suit.

The Simon & Schuster move will affect 35 expected top sellers coming in early 2010, including Karl Rove's memoir Courage and Consequence and Don DeLillo's novel Point Omega. While publishers hope to keep hardcover sales—and prices—up, observers warn the step could backfire. "Authors get the most publicity at launch and need to strike while the iron is hot," an Amazon spokesman says. "If readers can't get their preferred format at that moment, they may buy a different book or just not buy a book at all."

FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2009 file photo, the Kindle 2 electronic reader is shown at an Amazon.com news conference in New York.
FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2009 file photo, the Kindle 2 electronic reader is shown at an Amazon.com news conference in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)
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COMMENTS
Showing 2 of 2 comments
mastermike
Dec 9, 2009 4:43 AM CST
There's no such thing as a hacked ebook. Although there are many pirated books floating around on the net. To be fairly honest though, you can't bump up an ebooks value, because it can't be signed by the author. In short get a real copy.
Timinator2K
Dec 9, 2009 2:03 AM CST
The American Capitalist mentality kicks in yet again...higher-prices with fewer sales...as opposed to lower-prices with MUCH high sales. Will they ever learn? Really, they're so entrenched in paper-based books that they want to squeeze out every drop of profit out of that before they are FORCED into competitive e-book publishing.

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