I don't know how it is in other countries but there are several difficulties to selling e-books in France (not all of these are justified though). We have many small publisher and small libraries here... I discussed this with friends who worked in libraries and at publishing houses (and who are dead set against e-books ^^)
-> The publisher might not want to because:
- He bought a new printer and need a return on investment
- He doesn't understand the economic model of selling e-books
- He doesn't know the technology to make good e-books
- There is no standard format
- Employees need to be trained
- Their books are not readable on e-readers so far (think arts, color textbooks, comics, children books...)
- They fear piracy
- They love paper books
- They fear the lack of visibility
- They fear that the book won't be promoted
- They fear libraries will refuse to sell the paper book if there is an e-book
-> The retailer might not want to because:
- He may lose paper book sales
- His task force could become useless
- He could lose his business entirely
- and again, they love paper books and fear piracy
Both retailers and publishers have powerful unions here. Not to mention buyers/readers who still find many reasons to prefer paper books to e-books here. We do so love paper here...