Out of stock everywhere except Walmart...

The country's hottest book is also hard to find.

"Game Change," an insider account of the 2008 presidential election written by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, was released Tuesday and is No. 1 on both Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. But the book is out of stock until at least Friday, and the electronic edition will not come out until Feb. 23, HarperCollins spokeswoman Leslie Cohen said Tuesday.

With increasing frequency, publishers have been withholding the release of the digital version of new books, citing concerns that sales would be hurt for the hardcover, which is more expensive. On Amazon.com, several readers identifying themselves as Kindle users complained about the policy.

Cohen said HarperCollins was not commenting.