Epub Release Dates - Different than Hardcover?!?!

[pokee]

Okay - I am ticked off! I've been waiting for a book to be released for what seems like forever (2nd book in a series - Pandemonium, by Lauren Oliver) and I cannot find the ePub on the Kobo website, even though the hardcover was released on Feb. 17, 2012.

Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com are both releasing the hardcover and the ePub on Feb. 28th (which must be the Harper Collins USA's official release date) AND Amazon allows PRE ORDERS for digital books and will deliver the book to their Kindle users the date that it is released. Now I am feeling a little ripped off!

So...what I can't figure out is why Harper Collins Canada would release the hardcover, but no the ePub?! Does this happen often? I have emailed them to ask them the release date, but no reply yet.

Sure, I can wait patiently to see when the ePub is released, but I am dying to read it!!!! I was flipping though the hardcover at Coles yesterday and I was sooo tempted....but the whole reason I have THREE (yep, count 'em, THREE) Kobos is to NOT add to my overflowing bookshelf, and buying a paper book now seems almost blasphemous!

So...I sit idly waiting...

[pokee]

Well...I got my answer! Someone at Harper Collins confirmed that the book's official 'sales' date is Feb. 28th - which means Coles/Chapters 'jumped' the official sales date of the book at their stores and online...that's...interesting...

> The pub date for the Cdn ebook is the same as the US, February 28th:
>
> http://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/pand...65105300?mt=11
>
> Kobo doesn't have a pre-sales feature, so no books will be live
> there until the actual on sale date, which is tomorrow. However,
> the book will be available for sale tomorrow at Kobo and all of
> the other Canadian ebook retailers.
>
> The book is also available for pre-sale from Amazon here:
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Pandemonium-Delirium-
> ebook/dp/B005MMJ84K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1330376936&sr=1-1
>
> A "release" date is not the same as an on sale date - these
> "release" dates that are listed on our websites are for
> bookstores, they are the date where the book leaves the
> warehouse to be shipped across the country for their ACTUAL on
> sale date, which in this case, is Feb 28th. So Lauren's book
> left our warehouse on the 17th to give it enough time to cross
> the country to be physically available tomorrow.

[FizzyWater]

Author Michelle Sagara had a blog post that explains this too, from the perspective of someone who works at a bookstore.

It was triggered, if you're interested, by people asking her if it was better to wait until the release date, if they see the books in stores early.

[wallcraft]

For several reasons (some of which may no longer apply) I got into the habit of adding the hardback to my Amazon wishlist, even though I will buy the ebook. So I have noticed that hardbacks are quite often available before the official publication date. The ebooks are almost never available early.

[HarleyB]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The ebooks are almost never available early.

An exception perhaps but last week I purchased an ePub available at both Amazon and Kobo "The Sins of the Father" the second book in Jeffrey Archer's Clifton Chronicles.
When I first saw it I thought "FINALLY Kobo is letting us preorder!" But it was available for purchase.
The hardback is not supposed to be released until next month. I haven't seen it in any shops as yet and it's not available online.