[SatvikBeri]

I think it's price discrimination. As I understand it hardcover books have much higher profit margins. The major fans want to buy a book ASAP and if hardcover is the only option they'll buy that. But if all editions are available from day 1 then a lot of customers will buy the cheapest one.

[nathanbarry]

I think you're right. I found the article I was thinking of:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24patterson-t.htm...

Here's the section:

"WHAT IS PERHAPS most remarkable about the Patterson empire is the sheer volume of books it produces. The nine hardcovers a year are really only the beginning. Nearly all of those books are published a second and third time, first as traditional paperbacks, then as pocket-size, mass-market paperbacks. “Scarcely a week goes by when we aren’t publishing something by James Patterson,” Young told me, only half-joking."

[runevault]

That is 100% the case, same way movies prefer to have it in theaters and then release onto Blu-ray/dvd later to get people in theaters THEN get them to buy it. Controlling buying habits through windowing is annoying but not surprising method of improving revenue among other things.

Another fiction example, to ensure the last book of the Wheel of Time would hit #1 on the NYT hardcover list the original author's widow talked the publisher into not releasing the eBook right away to make sure people who bought the book week 1 got the hardback ensuring it would hit the top spot.