[Freak_NL]

I guess authors and publishers do like being able to show that a certain title is forthcoming.

[nemomarx]

And it lets people add it to reading list plans early etc. But you could probably have a read only entry with a countdown without enormous efforts?

[bityard]

Can they do that without allowing third party reviews before the publication date?

[bluGill]

Sure, but that doesn't solve the problem. How things are makes the problem obvious. If they put a countdown everyone leaving bad reviews just waits until reviews open and then it becomes much harder to know it isn't an honest review as it is possible that they really read it.