Oh, what to do, what to do?! HarperCollins is delaying its e-book release of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue: An American Life, hoping against hope that it will sell enough hardcover copies first.

Earlier this month, the Hachette subsidiary Twelve took the same tack: delaying the e-version of Ted Kennedy's memoir to try to pump up hardcover sales.

Dying sounds from a desperate industry? Well, it's a bipartisan problem, at least. But how bad off is the book-publishing industry that it's relying on Palin's book to help rescue it during the holiday-shopping season? She's not even a smart conservative.