[pwalker8]

I ran across something quite odd today. I had preordered Changes, Jim Butcher's new book from the Amazon kindle store. Late last week, I got an email from Amazon saying that

"We're writing to let you know that we've canceled your order for Changes (Dresden Files, Book 12) because it will not be released by the publisher in Kindle format on Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 as previously expected. We don't yet have a date for when this item will be released for Kindle. We will send you an email notifying you when the Kindle edition becomes available.

The print edition is sometimes not an ideal substitute; nevertheless, we have decided to offer the print edition of this title at an exceptionally low price to partially compensate for this inconvenience. The print version can be seen on the Amazon.com website here:"

I figured, ok, that's just the publisher deciding that they wanted to wring out some extra money on the hard back sales before releasing it to ebook. Tor had been doing this a while, but the Dresden Files books had always been available at the same time. Disappointing, but what can you do. Then today, I got an email from the Sony ebook store saying that it was available. I first searched for it on Amazon, but it's not in the Kindle section yet, then I pulled up my Reader Library software, bought it at the Sony store, downloaded it, converted it to a format that my iPad could read and put it on my iPad. Sure enough, it's Changes.

What's up with this? Are the publishers trying to put Amazon in it's place, kind of like the music companies tried to play hard ball with Apple and iTunes? It seems to me that the publishers are cutting their own throat by not putting it out for the Kindle. It is available for the iBook, so it's not a Sony exclusive.