Why do publishers still release books in hardback, months before the paperback?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific concepts
  
  

Hardback first ... Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One.
Hardback first ... Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

Why do publishers still insist on releasing books in hardback, sometimes alongside the electronic version, but always months before the paperback is available? Surely if customers want a hardback they will buy a hardback and if they want a paperback they will buy a paperback.

Robert Cullen, Gothenburg, Sweden

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