Steering readers away from e-copies towards hardcovers carries a big payoff for publishers: A new hardcover usually costs $25 or more, versus $9.99 for an e-book. And publishers can claim, with some justification, that the practice of using staggered release windows isn't unprecedented: Movie studios never sell DVDs until a film's out of theaters.

But books aren't quite the same. An e-book consumer has likely already invested $299 in a Kindle; he's not going to be gulled into paying an extra $15 to $25 for a product that's less portable than the one he really wants, and shouldn't be expected to.

The real problem here is with the retailers. Amazon and Barnes & Noble are insisting on selling e-books at a loss in hopes of establishing permanent dominant market share. Publishers hate this regime, fearing its long-term effect on pricing power. With no control over pricing, they're left with little choice but to monkey around with the one variable they can influence: timing. If publishers could set the prices for their own titles, they wouldn't be tempted to create an artificial scarcity that ultimately hurts themselves, the retailers and the readers.