As much as I love hardcovers and print books in general, I understand why e-book readers are frustrated about Simon & Schuster and Hachette’s announcement on delayed e-book releases. In an attempt to “preserve our industry,” both houses are (or plan on) publishing e-book editions of their titles three to four months after the hardcover release. The idea is that readers will end up paying the higher price for the book in hardcover because they won’t want to wait four months for the book in their preferred format. Most authors at those houses are on board with the plan because they stand to make more money from hardcover sales, but that’s only if people are equally inclined to buy either format but make decisions based on price alone.

If they are, then I understand why you would delay e-book releases to remove the competition for hardcover sales. But it seems that a majority of e-book readers, who have spent the couple of hundred dollars on an electronic reading device, are rather dedicated to the format and wouldn’t let a timing delay convince them to spend extra money on a hardcover. In those four months, they would spend their $9.99 on other books (and you know there are plenty out there to choose from) and possibly forget about the delayed titles by the time they’re available. As an Amazon spokesman said in the Wall Street Journal article, “Authors get the most publicity at launch and need to strike while the iron is hot. 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.”

James McQuivey over at the Forrester blog posted a great response to the announcement, proposing alternatives to the delayed e-book plan, including bundling the formats and offering premium digital editions that can be released at the same time as hardcovers. We’ve discovered some challenges with bundling formats and putting the physical and digital into the same shopping cart, but we’re still working on finding solutions that won’t keep any readers out in the cold.