Simon & Schuster is emerging as a key adversary to Amazon's push with electronic books. The publishing house has led the charge on delaying the digital version of hardcover books — part a growing opposition to Amazon's policy (adopted by other retailers) of discounting new release e-books to $9.99 or lower. Now Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy is signaling there may be more battles ahead in 2010, telling employees in an annual letter that the company must resist the "the downward pressures exerted by the marketplace" and "the perception that 'digital' means 'cheap.'"

Here's an excerpt from her letter, via Publishers Weekly:

“We must do everything in our power to uphold the value of our content against the downward pressures exerted by the marketplace and the perception that “digital” means “cheap.” We must work to defend the livelihoods of our authors at a time when instantaneous file transfer makes piracy easier than ever, and in a world in which many consider copyright irrelevant,” Reidy said. “These challenges will play out on all fronts in our business, from our interaction with authors and customers to how we acquire, produce, market, and distribute our books, and sometimes subjected to the scrutiny of the media and the blogosphere.

Simon & Schuster's e-book delay policy, which emerged last week, provoked a swift rebuke from Amazon, which called the publisher "backward-leaning" and singled out Reidy by name:

"Carolyn wants to corral readers, force them to buy what they wouldn't buy if they had a choice. It won't work. The better approach is to embrace the evolution of the book and give customers what they want," Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener told the New York Times.

Simon & Schuster (part of CBS Corp.) is part of a growing group of publishers, including Hachette Book Group and HarperCollins, that are delaying e-books (HarperCollins is a unit of News Corp., which is also squaring off against Kindle on the newspaper front).

These publishers fear the heavy discounting on e-books will devalue what consumers consider a fair price for books, and upend the industry's business model, which is already under significant pressure. Reidy, in her letter to employees, wrote that the book market is "truly lackluster, and year-on-year sales at most of our major customers have declined significantly."

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