In response to Bert Gibson,

It’s not that simple. There is a large (and especially elderly section of the population that doesn’t trust or doesn’t know about the internet.

Think about it: many book sales are made by people who are browsing or hanging out at the local bookstores and buying them on a whim. Any unavailability of a particular book (especially during its initial release “buzz” period) will result in a drastic suppression of its sales. Any bookseller’s chain understands this paradigm which is why procuring timely orders is such a big deal.

And for those people who don’t know how or don’t trust internet purchases, the bookstore is the only viable method of exposure to these books. My mother is one such person (in spite of my efforts). In fact, I’m reasonably certain that everyone here knows someone of that nature.

If the bookstores don’t carry them (for whatever reason) this big bookreading customer base will either give up on getting copies or will have never have known of the existence of such a book in the first place.

In short, the idea that “it doesn’t matter” is simply a false assumption.