Simon & Schuster Delaying 'Under the Dome' E-book Release
By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 10/21/2009 1:52:00 PM
With publishers experimenting on release dates for e-books—and, in some cases withholding the digital edition entirely (as Hachette did with Ted Kennedy's True Compass)—Simon & Schuster has announced it is delaying the release of the e-book of Stephen King's eagerly anticipated new 1,000-plus-page novel, Under the Dome.
The Scribner title is bowing in print on November 10, but the e-book will not be available until December 24. More specifically, the digital edition is set to go on sale at 12:01 a.m.—making it a Christmas Eve release—and, presumably, preserving print sales for as much as possible while making the e edition available for newly bought devices.
The Dome e-book will go on sale with the same list price as the print edition, $35. With a veiled reference to the price issue currently surrounding e-books, S&S said in a statement that the lagged digital release speaks to "the current state of the marketplace and trends in digital book pricing."
