The pre-ordered book price war that drove down the online cost of hit titles below $10 has been extended to DVDs, including “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which will be released Dec. 8. Walmart, Amazon and Target have slashed prices on that new movie and others, the Wall St. Journal notes.

The mega-retailers have been battling for an early share of holiday spending, in a war that makes indie bookstores shudder. For one local bookseller’s take on the issue, check out this blog post by Lauretta at Constellation Books in Reisterstown. An excerpt: "My personal opinion as a bookseller is that this price war is not sustainable and will eventually shrink the pool of available publishers and authors. Publishers pay attention to what sells - and if all that is selling are the 5-10 different $8.99-priced titles, they won't accept or print the new authors. They can't afford to. So we get a reduction in titles, a reduction in authors, and eventually a reduction in publishers."