Anyone know why Amazon would...

I would say simple supply and demand.

Did your publisher print too many copies that aren't moving?

Storage costs vary according to location, but lets say it costs around $500 a month in fees to store 10,000 books. It wouldn't take long before the fees really start to cut into the profits if the books aren't moving.

To be fair, I haven't crunched numbers on book storage and am not overly familair with book distribution. But off the top of my head, I would imagine that the answer to why Amazon or any major seller would discount a product is due to typical supply demand economics. And if something isn't moving as anticipated, then they lower price to help facilitate sales...

that would be my guess

Mel...

The only stupid question is the one you don't ask. And linking books you've written is sort of part of the 'writerly camaraderie'. Have a look around, you'll see many who do it

If Amazon is the only one who slashed your price, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll earn less in royalties. It all depends on how your contract is written. And with a lower price, you might sell more to make up any difference anyway. Even if, say, you get only half the usual royalty, if you sell, say, three times as many copies, you come out ahead.

And 60%? That ain't nuthin'! I found out this week that the French Canadian publisher of my series has lowered the first book in the French edition to $.99 (CAN). Which kinda sucker-punched me at first, but then, it appears that lots of books are moving, which, in the end, is what it's all about--people reading them. I'm wondering (and have no way to check) if it's a promo to get more sales of the rest of the series, and that's totally all right by me!

Terie said:

And 60%? That ain't nuthin'! I found out this week that the French Canadian publisher of my series has lowered the first book in the French edition to $.99 (CAN). Which kinda sucker-punched me at first, but then, it appears that lots of books are moving, which, in the end, is what it's all about--people reading them. I'm wondering (and have no way to check) if it's a promo to get more sales of the rest of the series, and that's totally all right by me!

Click to expand...

#

And all those people who pick up the first book on impulse at $.99 could buy the second book at full price.

> And all those people who pick up the first book on impulse at $.99
> could buy the second book at full price

Feu de Printemps went out-of-stock this week, which is a bit telling where the kids are in their readings...

-cb

There could be a bunch of reasons:

• Loss leader -- Might be being used to increase sales for something else.
• Revenue generator -- Businesses hold sales to increase volume.
• Too much inventory -- As stated, they could have too many boxes sitting around that they need to move.
• Experimenting on price point -- Amazon might be wondering if lower price moves your book or books in general or books in your genre better.
• Remainder bin -- Someone might have decided your book belongs in the remainder bin.
• Random mistake -- Someone might have hit the wrong button on the computer.
• Publisher told them to -- Publishers tell sellers to do various things on price, either to all distributors or to just one.
• And a whole bunch others.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

You don't mention the title of your book, so I could not take a look.But when you say your book is on Amazon ,who is actually selling it.Most books are not sold by Amazon themselves but third party book Sellers .Once there is more than one, the price will fall.No book seller wants a load of books that are falling in price,so the vicious circle begins and the price can fall really quickly.Amazon ranking has noting to do with the price.A valuable book would be in the bottom million,because Amazon has never sold a copy.There are lots of best Sellers on Amazon that you can buy for not much more than the postage.

stephenf said:

Most books are not sold by Amazon themselves but third party book Sellers .

Click to expand...

Er... "most"?

Amazon at least did have warehouses. When I worked for a small specialty press, Amazon would order a small handful of books for any one of their four warehouses. This was at the turn of the century, so not all THAT long ago. We were never sent an order to be sent directly to the customer, FWIW. Everything always got shipped to one of their warehouses.

I'm not sure why Amazon would put a sale on the OP's book, but I doubt lack of storage space would be the problem. According to our contract with Amazon (which I thought sucked mightily, but the boss signed it), all shipping costs were the responsibility of the publisher (along with a standard 55% discount) and there was more once Amazon would ship BACK some books for whatever reason and charge us for the shipping. Then 2-3 days later, we'd get an order for the same amount of books to be returned to the warehouse. They really weren't shy about such things and I doubt that has changed much.

cbenoi1 said:

> And all those people who pick up the first book on impulse at $.99
> could buy the second book at full price

Feu de Printemps went out-of-stock this week, which is a bit telling where the kids are in their readings...

Click to expand...

(For those who don't know [being most of y'all reading this thread...LOL!], 'Feu de Printemps' is the French translation of the third book in my four-book YA series.)

Also, I just discovered that the fourth (and last) book in the series was released last month. (Well, the French translation thereof.) They appear to have done another press run with the special price on the cover of 'Quete d'Automne', which is pretty cool. So I'm wondering if it's part of a promo for the last book coming out. Who knows? I just shot off an e-mail to my US editor to inquire, but I don't know if he'll be able to discover anything.

cbenoi1 is generously keeping me informed of what's going on. Ain't AW a grand place?!

60%? That's nothing. Wait until your book goes out of print and can be bought used for a penny. That's humbling.

Beth

willietheshakes said:

Er... "most"?

Click to expand...

That's right.I had a quick look at, Before I Wake, on Amazon UK.There are 110 sellers trying to sell the 2008 paperback version, new and second hand . Amazon have 5 copies. Once you have reached that situation, the reverse auction, that is operated on Amazon, has run it course and the book becomes valueless. Thats cash wise ,not artistically.

stephenf said:

That's right.I had a quick look at, Before I Wake, on Amazon UK.There are 110 sellers trying to sell the 2008 paperback version, new and second hand . Amazon have 5 copies. Once you have reached that situation, the reverse auction, that is operated on Amazon, has run it course and the book becomes valueless. Thats cash wise ,not artistically.

Click to expand...

I'm not saying there aren't marketplace sellers, or that there might be more copies of a particular title available through the marketplace. But to say that most books sold by Amazon aren't sold by Amazon per se has a wide variety of connotations, most of which wouldn't be accurate.

Also, "reverse auction"?

Amazon has remainder bins?

willietheshakes said:

I'm not saying there aren't marketplace sellers, or that there might be more copies of a particular title available through the marketplace. But to say that most books sold by Amazon aren't sold by Amazon per se has a wide variety of connotations, most of which wouldn't be accurate.



Also, "reverse auction"?

Click to expand...

Originally Amazon was Internet retailer.Amazon has become a Internet market place ,like e-bay,were Amazon the retailer is one among thousands of others. you can easily check for your self.


I put a book on Amazon for ten pounds.Another book seller offers the same book for nine pounds seventy five .I now can hope he will sell all his books or I offer mine at nine pounds fifty=reverse auction.

There are some book sellers that use software to adjust there prices, so you can never undercut them.

Indeed, but most of the books bought (in terms of volume) from Amazon are probably those vended by Amazon and shipped from them.

stephenf said:

Originally Amazon was Internet retailer.Amazon has become a Internet market place ,like e-bay,were Amazon the retailer is one among thousands of others. you can easily check for your self.

Click to expand...

Did you miss the part where I referred to the Amazon Marketplace sellers?

However -- Amazon is FAR from just "one among thousands". That's a gross mischaracterization. As is the equivalency with eBay.

stephenf said:

I put a book on Amazon for ten pounds.Another book seller offers the same book for nine pounds seventy five .I now can hope he will sell all his books or I offer mine at nine pounds fifty=reverse auction.

There are some book sellers that use software to adjust there prices, so you can never undercut them.

Click to expand...

Certainly.
But Amazon itself doesn't participate in these "reverse auctions".

veinglory said:

Indeed, but most of the books bought (in terms of volume) from Amazon are probably those vended by Amazon and shipped from them.

Click to expand...

Which would be my point...

willietheshakes said:

However -- Amazon is FAR from just "one among thousands". That's a gross mischaracterization. As is the equivalency with eBay.



Certainly.
But Amazon itself doesn't participate in these "reverse auctions".



Which would be my point...

Click to expand...

There are thousands of book sellers on Amazon and Amazon do participate the reverse auction ..Just have a look at the top one hundred books on Amazon .Most if not all are being discounted, all ,except pre orders,will have a number of different sellers offering the books.
As for the total percentage of book Amazon sell.I don't know and unless you are a Amazon insider you will probably no know ether.

The advise I would give anybody thinking of becoming a book seller is ,don't it's a business to getting out of, not into. That is what Amazon are doing.

Dreaming said:

...slash my trade paperback by 60%? My book hasn't been selling in droves by any means, but there's certainly been a steady stream of sales. I'm often in the 60,000-200,000 ranking - have yet to go over 600,000. I've seen other YA authors cover price remain untouched even though they're selling even less than i am.

Enlighten me please

Click to expand...

It's most likely the decision made between your publisher and Amazon. Most publishers give substantial discounts. That shouldn't affect your royalties if you're on gross, not net.

stephenf said:

There are thousands of book sellers on Amazon and Amazon do participate the reverse auction ..Just have a look at the top one hundred books on Amazon .Most if not all are being discounted, all ,except pre orders,will have a number of different sellers offering the books.
As for the total percentage of book Amazon sell.I don't know and unless you are a Amazon insider you will probably no know ether.

Click to expand...

You're mischaracterizing this, to support an unsupportable point.
Amazon doesn't participate in any sort of auction as you're describing -- Amazon discounts books (and all other items) from the MSRP, a vastly different thing.
IE, in an auction, the highest bid wins the item. In a reverse auction, conversely, the lowest bid would win the item. So why isn't Amazon charging $.01, as many of the marketplace sellers do? Because they're not participating. It's simply not their sales model, and you are in error to claim it to be.

stephenf said:

The advise I would give anybody thinking of becoming a book seller is ,don't it's a business to getting out of, not into. That is what Amazon are doing.

Click to expand...

Speaking as a bookseller of twenty years: show me a statement where Amazon says they're trying to get out of the business?

That's simply a ridiculous claim.