Hold that Kindle: E-book release delayed for Kennedy memoir

E-book release delayed for Kennedy memoir

NEW YORK — E-book fans will have to wait for a download of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s memoir.

“True Compass,” one of the year’s most anticipated books, is scheduled to come out next week. But publisher Twelve has decided to hold off “indefinitely” on a digital edition. The head of Twelve, Jonathan Karp, said Thursday that the delay was a “business decision” and added that the pictures and illustrations in “True Compass” cannot be duplicated in e-book form.

“It (the delay) does not reflect any larger corporate policy,” said Karp, whose imprint is part of the Hachette Book Group. “We publish each book individually and we felt that this particular hardcover edition of ‘True Compass’ deserves to be the first and pre-eminent format for the book.”

Telephone and e-mails messages left Thursday with e-book sellers Amazon.com. A spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble.com said that the company had no comment.

Digital sales were so tiny until recently that the publishing industry routinely released e-books at the same time or even before the paper editions. But the growth of electronic sales, widely believed to be between 1 percent to 2 percent of the overall market and higher still for current best sellers, has made publishers worry that the market would suffer for more expensive hardcover editions.

Karp would not comment directly when asked whether he was worried that e-book sales would take away from the hardcover, but noted: “You don’t expect a first-run movie to be available on cable the first weekend.”

“True Compass” has a list price of $35. E-books usually sell for under $10.

“I don’t think there’s a trade publisher around — one who operates on the high-end level of entertainment — who wouldn’t be extremely worried about that (price level for e-books),” said Hachette CEO David Young, who added that he was also concerned about the increasing popularity of free e-book downloads, usually for older works.

On Thursday afternoon, the top five downloads for Amazon’s Kindle e-reading device were free.

“The whole problem of Internet-enabled information being free is something the book industry, the magazine industry and news providers are trying to deal with,” Young said.

Earlier this year, Sourcebooks announced it would wait on an e-edition of Kaleb Nation’s “Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse,” a young adult novel that came out this month. Scholastic Press has yet to set a date for the e-book of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel, “Catching Fire,” released in hardcover around the same time as “Bran Hambric.”

“It just wasn’t the decision that was made by the team,” Scholastic spokeswoman Kyle Good said when asked why the e-book wasn’t available.

Many of the fall’s biggest books will have simultaneous e-releases, including Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol,” Diane Gabaldon’s “An Echo in the Bone” and Jon Krakauer’s “Where Men Win Glory.”

Kennedy, diagnosed last year with brain cancer, died Aug. 25 at age 77. The book was originally scheduled to come out in 2010, but was moved up to October of this year, then Sept. 14, in hopes that Kennedy would live to see its publication. Twelve has announced a first printing of 1.5 million copies and preorders of the “True Compass” hardcover have been strong enough to place the book in the top 10 on Amazon.com.

Kennedy agreed to publish with Twelve in 2007 and reportedly received $8-$9 million for his book, a rare firsthand, high-level account of one of history’s most famous political dynasties.