Most insiders agree there are two things — two really crippling things — wrong with the book business: returns and discounts. Most also agree that these are two things that could be fixed, if only a group of the big publishers would agree to act together. And that’s where the discussion always ends — for decades, now — just shy of action. The big, powerful publishers, as it turns out, are a measly, timid lot.

We’ve written about this phenomenon before on MobyLives, and as time went on it just seemed like it was going to be ever so … until now. A third major publisher has joined two other big boys in standing up to Amazon.com: HarperCollins has announced that it would join Simon & Schuster and the Hachette Book Group (see the earlier MobyLives report) in delaying the release of major titles in ebook format because of Amazon’s excessively low pricing.

In a Wall Street Journal report by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray calls it an “experiment” and says “Each new e-book represents a potential new marketing opportunity at a time when we need every possible hook to get consumer attention.” Trachtenberg says Murray also warned that “if new hardcover titles continue to be sold as $9.99 e-books, the eventual outcome will be fewer literary choices for customers, because publishers won’t be able to take as many chances on new writers.”

Murray says he was encouraged to enact the delays after seeing the success of Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue. “We have to believe that delaying the e-book edition helped hardcover sales,” he says.

As to how it will work, Trachtenberg reports “HarperCollins will delay the e-book publication of five to 10 new hardcover titles each month. The delays are expected to range from four weeks to six months, depending on the book.”