• USA Today, Friday, December 11, 2009 10:04 AM

David Lieberman gives a detailed rundown of the efforts of several major book publishers this week to challenge Amazon's $10 pricing on e-books -- which other e-reader marketers such as Barnes & Noble and Sony have been forced to match.

Simon & Schuster and Hachette Book Group say that they will wait until about four months after some hard covers hit the shelves before releasing them as e-books. HarperCollins also says it will delay some titles and will also experiment with higher and lower e-book prices.

Publishers "don't want Amazon to be the only game in town," says Jim Milliot, senior editor at Publishers Weekly. "They view e-books and e-book readers as inevitable, but they don't really know how it's going to shake out."

A useful sidebar compares the features of Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Reader and Barnes & Noble' Nook. Not mentioned, however, is my personal favorite -- the free Kindle reader app for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Read the whole story at USA Today »