Simon & Schuster imposing four-month delay on e-book versions of major upcoming releases
By Ross Miller 
posted December 9th 2009 9:34PM
posted December 9th 2009 9:34PM
After hardcover and before paperback. In Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy's mind, this is when we as consumers should be expecting the digital copies of our favorite page turners to come out. Putting money where its mouth is, so to speak, the company has announced that for around 35 of its major releases coming early next year, the e-book iterations won't be out until four months after the physical releases. Seeing as hardcovers can debut at $27 while their digital equivalents can run $10 or less, Reidy notes one of the driving motivations behind this move is to curb consumer expectations that a new novel is worth only one Alexander Hamilton. It's a historically valid concern, especially when you consider how iTunes taught us that songs are only worth $1 apiece, but in the long-term, we don't expect this delay-on-digital trend to stay afloat. The e-book business is growing, and that delay is too artificial for its own good -- at some point, the argument's going to have to shift back to day-and-date pricing tiers. We'll be very interested to see just how this paper-borne release gap pans out from a sales standpoint.
Can some one tell my why they can't just price an ebook at the cost of the hardcover-the cost to print the hardcover? Is it that complicated folks? Do we really need an entirely new pricing scheme? No one was ever confused or bewildered by the pricing of books before.
The reason that music was a much larger deal when it came to pricing was we went from a model where you had to buy an entire album to one where you could choose only the individual song you wanted, the same is not true here (Sorry publisher, I only want to read chapter 4-5). And to further prove my point, look how MP3 albums are priced now. Pretty much the same as their physical counterparts, perhaps a little cheaper since there are reduced retail costs or if there are fewer tracks.
wow S&S must really hate making money. E-books are just another pillar in the business model for selling books. Those who want physical copies will buy the hardcover or paperback editions. Those who would have bought the e-book version now have no choice but to wait. Kudos, S&S well played. You don't want people buying the e-book versions, that's not going to be a problem anymore.
They're in for a world of hurt when the tech-train runs over their outdated selves.
everyone always wants things now, and for free. sigh.
Yes, on the surface this looks dumb, but at least its in line with their existing practices. They launch a hardcover, then a softcover 6 months later to catch the casual buyer, or those that can wait (or those that don't like carrying heavy hardcovers on a plane with them - me)
So this isn't delaying the release of the e-book, its actually earlier than the softcover which for many of us means earlier availability compared to the physical book (assuming you mostly buy softcovers)
Nice outdated business model they've got there.
This really only punishes the honest customers. Everyone under 40 who really wants an electronic copy of a new book will just google '[new book title] filetype:torrent' and be on their way.
This is a joke. I have over 1000 ebooks, bought from a number of different sites, and here is the fact on pricing.
1) Top authors get top dollars on ebooks. The price of an ebook from one of these authors when it first comes out is between $18 and $25 dollars.
2) Less well know authors get between $6 and $15 for a new book.
3) The prices on all drop to paper-back prices when - wait for it! - the paper-back comes out.
This scheme of the publisher is just a way to get people who REALLY want the book when it first comes out is to buy the hardcover at a highly inflated price, and THEN buy the ebook at a highly inflated price.
Personally, I have never pirated a book, but with rocket scientists like those at Simon and Schuster trying crap like like, this could change as easily as their policy.
@CaptOzone I have a Nook on pre-order right now, and I'm telling you now, if I see eBooks getting delayed, or eBook prices the same as hardcover, I will have no problem pirating eBooks.
Songs aren't worth $1 a piece, that's the problem. Supply and demand!
This puts companies like Amazon and B&N in an interesting position. It's no secret that brick & mortar bookstores are rapidly going the way of the dodo. I don't know the exact numbers, but I'm sure that a significant percentage of books are now bought online, and that number will only go up. So what this decision does for online retailers, particularly ones with their own readers, is put them in a marketing bind - do I push the hardcovers to my customers, or tell them to wait until the digital version is available for the reader I manufacture (and mostly lose money on)?
I agree that the market is clearly moving toward digital books, and history shows that what content providers refuse to do, pirates and grey markets will. So I don't see decisions like this being widely adopted or lasting very long. But it's clearly a line in the sand, a sort of battle cry for the publishers, and a sign they might not go quietly into that good night. I'm going to enjoy the bloody mess that unfolds as a result.
Mega dumb move imo. I'm planning to pick up a nook once they're back in stock locally and I will not be purchasing paper books with the sole exception of cook books. I love a full color cook book, even if I don't need them I still buy them.
Does she realize that any book can have an ebook version if you have a basic word processor and a lot of time?
It's laughable when an author with clout (Rowling comes to mind) says they won't allow eBook versions "because of all the piracy". So how long did it take "Deathly Hallows" to show up online and free?
The S&S practice is clearly doomed; as one poster noted above, it'd be like the iTunes/Amazon digital download version of an album being delayed 4 months.
@(Unverified)
You're right. It's like the publishers and authors don't understand that things called "page scanners" exist, and that OCR software can convert a book from dead-tree to digital in a few hours, at worst.
I don't condone piracy, but it's ridiculous how publishers just stick their heads in the sand and pretend it won't happen if they just put more restrictions on the end-users. As if the hackers and pirates are deterred by this?
The better solution would be to offer the official ebook IMMEDIATELY, at a fair price, and then claim in press releases that this policy has "saved countless trees" and "made a positive impact on our environment." Thus making the publisher a hero instead of a greedy villain, when all the while, they're making the same amount of profit (and spending less on distribution, printing, stocking, etc.)
Short term thinking. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
The funniest thing about all this, book publishers have a very clear roadmap of exactly what will happen if they don't embrace new technology. The music and movie have already been through all this. There is a very clear roadmap for what customers will allow and what tends to drive legit customers toward piracy. Do these book publishers somehow think they're more powerful than the movie and music industries and are going to be immune to all this?
Music industry, movie industry, book industry..
Welcome to Dances with Dinosaurs, part 3.
On a more serious note it's hard to believe that these industries believe they can sell 'Time' or offer 'Time' as part of their product. I've often wondered - I have a netflix account and get showtime so I'd be 'authorized' to view pretty much any movie that comes out at some point in time. If I download a movie now that I could otherwise wait and order through Netflix who exactly am I hurting? Where is the crime? Why is it a crime for me to watch something on Monday that I could get in the mail on Wednesday?
Aren't we going to make fun of them like we would if they were Rupert Murdoch?