HARD COVER BOOKS; RELEASE WINDOWS

and now for something of world import; the future of hard cover books. i am a reader. i prefer paperbacks. they are smaller, lighter and softer than hardcovers and thus better for travel and reading in bed. however publishers release first in hardcover, with silly retail prices that are heavily discounted and print paperbacks a year later

so i just read a review for a new book, in the case, The emperor of all maladies. i went to amazon, where else would one go? and they show the book available in hardcover with a $30 retail price for $17.40. however you can also get it in Kindle version for $14.99. but NOT in paperback.

now i don't know what the point of having a retail price of 30 and selling it for 17.40. the nominal retail price is silly. but with the simultaneous release in electronic version the horse is out of the barn. people prefer different formats; hard cover, paperback and electronic. give the people the choice. in fact maybe they could bundle physical and electronic?

what do you think?