Fans of the music industry remember the transition to digital downloads as a trying time. Music companies accustomed to charging as much as $20 for a new CD were reeling with the mainstream adoption of file sharing technology. It took as much as a decade before they really figured out embraced the fact that there were ways to make money in this new marketplace, despite the fact that things were scary and different.

And while the rest of the media world, from movies to television to video games continues on the speedy path to unfettered digitization of content, the publishing industry is mired in the past. Just last week, publishers Simon & Schuster and the Harper Hatchette Book Group announced their plans to institute an across-the-board delay on the digital release of their newest books this spring.

According to a representative from the HarperCollins, their reasons for doing this are purely financial. Because Amazon has pinned the price of eBooks in their store at $9.99, consumers are opting to purchase those over the more expensive hardcover editions of new releases. The result has been a hit to book publishers’ bottom line; one they are wont to accept without a fight.

Hatchette CEO David Young, interviewed in the Wall Street Journal last week, explained: “We’re doing this to preserve our industry. I can’t sit back and watch years of building authors sold off at bargain-basement prices. It’s about the future of the business.”

The industry is moving towards eBooks. This is a fact. Amazon currently has over 360,000 books in their existing library, and the number grows every day. Google just recently announced that their plans to sell books through their new venture Google Editions will extend to all e-Readers, including the Amazon Kindle. With market leaders like those two companies throwing their bulk behind the idea, how can anybody deny that it’s anything other than inevitable?

The parallels to the music industry cannot be overstated. When they refused to embrace digital downloads, they effectively conditioned a generation of consumers to turn to piracy before considering buying downloaded music. Now digital downloads are considered a loss-leader for the music business – a non-profitable teaser used principally to get people to attend live concerts.

By delaying the release of best-selling titles, book publishers are stoking the flames of a potential piracy problem. Do they really think that people are just going to go back to buying hardcover editions of books after dropping the $259 for an e-Reader? Either people are going to bide their time on cheaper fare or they’re going to use their music downloading skills to find that latest bestseller. Publishers can either get their acts together or watch as their industry crumbles around them. Your choice, boys!