I must confess, I don’t understand Amazon’s book pricing. I
never felt a need to understand it before Master Point Press offered my bridge book for sale on Amazon’s website. As a baseline, the price listed on the back cover of One Trick at a
Time: how to start winning at bridge is $18.95. Amazon first listed
it for a preorder price of $12.67. Wow, I thought, anyone can order my book for
less than I can get it from the publisher with my 40% discount, taking into
consideration that Amazon ships free on orders over $25 and my publisher
charges for shipping.
As consolation, I did receive my books almost six weeks
before anyone could buy them on Amazon. As soon as Amazon actually fessed up to
having the book in stock (7 available! – hurry, order soon) the price increased
to $14.37. Two days later they had nine books available and four days after
that their inventory doubled to eighteen. Now why, I asked myself, would they
order my book in dribs and drabs? I’m sure they have a stocking algorithm, but
since I don’t get daily sales statistics from Amazon, I don’t know how many
they have actually sold. Incidentally, during this period Barnes & Noble
had the book listed for $13.50.
I forgot to look at Amazon’s prices for almost two months
because I was migrating between winter and summer homes, playing in several
bridge tournaments and giving bridge lectures (oh, and hoping to sell a few
books). When I remembered to check, Amazon’s price had jumped to $18.59; Barnes
and Noble listed it for only $16.87. Someone must have clicked on the link
Amazon has to “tell us about a lower price,” because within a week Amazon
lowered their price to match Barnes & Nobles’. As of this writing, Amazon’s
reported inventory is down to six books.
Incidentally, Amazon lists other sellers of the book besides
themselves. At some US retailers you can buy the book, purportedly brand new,
for $11.48 plus $3.99 S&H, which comes out to less than Amazon’s price. If
you are looking to really enrich someone, you can pay as much as $32.51 plus
$3.99 S&H!!
As I wrote the first draft of this blog, Amazon’s listingfor Catherine Coulter’s Backfire (An FBI Thriller) showed an
expected release date of July 10, 2012. The hardcover list price is $26.95 and
the preorder price was $16.17. The Kindle edition, which was released the same
date, was available for preorder at $12.99. I’ll follow
this best-selling author’s novel for three months to see what happens. If it’s
interesting I’ll report on it in a follow-up blog around late October.
If you have a traditionally published book on Amazon, do you
have any clue how they decide to price it?
~ Jim
In answer to your question, I have no idea and you know what? Since I have zero influence on the matter I spend only a tad more than that in time looking at and wondering about it. Not to be snarky, but I think we authors can better spend our energies dealing with marketing and writing aspects over which we do have a say.
ReplyDeleteCarl,
ReplyDeleteThe author part of me also spends no time worrying about their pricing. However, the finance geek part of me is curious to understand the economics behind what they do--not that it will change what I do, but just because I'm a curious sort.
~ Jim
If the pricing is strange, the ranking is downright unfathomable. My experience with Amazon includes having my work disappear from their site with no explanation ever given.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a clue about the Amazon pricing used for my book, Jim. All I know is I had to squeeze out a bunch of characters plus spaces, so they wouldn't have to price the hardcover even higher. They were happy with the book as it was, but it needed to come in under a certain character plus space limit, or the "price point" for the book would have to go higher. Since hardcovers are so darn expensive anyway, I didn't want my book any higher-priced than it had to be, so I squeezed those words out an already tight book.
ReplyDeleteAnd the rankings are part-voodoo, I think, Warren.
Warren,
ReplyDeleteI suspect the ratings are actually based on an algorithm -- the specifics of which may indeed have elements of voodoo.
I'm sure there are legions of Marketing MBAs out there who design the "optimal" pricing for hardcovers, paperbacks, etc. But it should would be interesting to peek under the hood.
~ Jim
Jim, Amazon originally sold my book at the publisher's list, 14.95, then dropped the price when the book became available at B&N for a couple of dollars less. The last time I looked it was selling for list at both sites.
ReplyDeleteI think "only blank left" is pure balderdash, to be polite. Equally mysterious are the Amazon rankings. The greatest mystery of all is why the Justice Department hasn't acted against a company which, to my admittedly non-lawyer mind, is in violation of the Sherman Act.
I think the number left is pure marketing hype. This has started appearing on Amazon.com in the past few months for virtually all books. Either that, or Amazon.com is decreasing their inventory markedly.
ReplyDelete