Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group announce 4 month delay on new ebooks

Have a Kindle, Sony Reader or still waiting to get your Nook? Well listen up because it seems that publishers are beginning to impose a delay in the availability of ebooks.

The decision so far has been formally announced by Simon & Schuster as well as the Hachette Book Group.

According to Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster;

“The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback,”

Personally, I am not sure I can agree with her “right place” but what that really means is that those looking for an ebook that is published by Simon & Schuster can expect to wait about 3-4 months after it is released as a hard cover. So far, this move looks like it will affect about 35 titles expected to be released during 2010.

Additionally, the second publisher Hachette Book Group has announced that they will be doing something similar, and those looking for one of their titles can expect a 3-4 month delay.

According to David Young, who is the chief executive of the Hachette Book Group, they are doing this in an effort to “preserve our industry.” Going on to further state that he “can’t sit back and watch years of building authors sold off at bargain-basement prices. It’s about the future of the business.”

If you ask me, this seems like an old model at work, and as much as many will hate to admit things are changing. I can only say that as a Kindle user, I would rather just wait for the release. Honestly, this move, except for maybe a very rare case would not be any cause for me to put my Kindle down and pick up a hard cover book. Which means that at least for me, they are just delaying the inevitable ebook sale.

Read [WSJ]