Last March we stirred up some dust with an article called Penetrating the Mysteries of E-Book Pricing. Sort Of. We pointed out that one of the problems that have hindered the progress of the digital revolution has been e-book pricing. “No one really knew how much to charge to download a book,” I pointed out, “and the fact is, we’re still not sure.”

A piece in today’s New York Times by Motoko Rich and Brad Stone may release an even bigger dust storm as major publishers and agents weigh in on the merits of holding back e-book publication to give print editions a chance to sell. Do e-books, priced at a serious fraction of the print edition retail price, boost sales, cannibalize them, or make no difference whatever?

“No topic is more hotly debated in book circles at the moment than the timing, pricing and ultimate impact of e-books on the financial health of publishers and retailers,” the Times reporters write. “Publishers are grappling with e-book release dates partly because they are trying to understand how digital editions affect demand for hardcover books. A hardcover typically sells for anywhere from $25 to $35, while the most common price for an e-book has quickly become $9.99.”

If you’d like to play publisher, tell me how you would time your e-book edition of the new Dan Brown novel with its first hardcover printing of five million copies. Are you going to shrug and say well, e-books represent only 1 or 2% of total book sales, so what’s the harm?

Think again. In a recessionary economy, it’s entirely possible that a lot more than 1 or 2% of potential buyers will opt to download. But even if the downloaders do not exceed that 1 or 2% figure, that’s a possible loss of revenue of $1 million or more.

Our own agency figures in the controversy. Jeff Trachtenberg and Geoffrey A. Fowler of the Wall Street Journal broke the news that Sourcebooks will publish Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse by Kaleb Nation, a novel for young readers, as a hardcover in September but the e-book will not come out at the same time. Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah wants to hold the e-book up until as much as six months after print publication, and we support her decision. Raccah told the Times, “If you as a consumer can look at a book and say: ‘I have two products; one is $27.95, and the other is $9.95. Which should I buy?’, that’s not a difficult decision.” Delaying the release of an e-book, she said, was like publishing a cheaper paperback edition months after a hardcover edition. She likened the e-book reprint to a mass market paperback reprint, which usually occurs a year or longer after hardcover publication.

Read A New World: Scheduling E-Books and decide. What you may ultimately decide is that playing publisher isn’t as much fun as it’s cracked up to be.

Richard Curtis

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.