Amazon and Book Pricing? Layer and layers, and here’s the starting point, having to do with Amazon and book pricing. Not exactly predatory, but answers to those unasked questions, I hope.
Amazon and Book Pricing
Two of my own books come to mind. My first effort…
“Astrological Romance Reference”
(Kindle edition)
Then, a personal favorite, a highly favored sophomore run…
San Pedro Creek (Amazon Kindle)
The pricing, in the first case, the “print-on-demand” technology was “new-ish,” the fully realized potential wasn’t fully realized, at the time. Ten years ago. In a short span, though the technology and web-based services jumped ahead, which has yield palpable results. Good stuff, my friend, good stuff.
That was also before there were substantial eBooks, iBooks, and the rest of that nonsense.
I’d say I still prefer printed books, but that’s not always true. Disposable news, like a horoscope is often better served electronically.
Last minute course corrections, spurious linkage, and space. My weekly is far too large for a printed medium. More like a large. But I digress, which I do, frequently. Hence the digital preference.
The pricing on the first effort, I think it originally listed at $24.95, which is way too much, even in my eyes, but to get it on Amazon, back then, the price had to be double plus some, of the production price, so Amazon could get a discount.
We’ll gladly raise our prices so we can give you a discount.
There was much deliberation, but I didn’t make much progress with book sales. So it goes.
Electronic texts became fashionable shortly there after, and that’s where these two examples work so well. The second effort, San Pedro Creek, which is merely a collection of scattered web journals from later years, that, with the photo-quality images embedded, costs $37.95, again, in part, to amazon’s arcane pricing structure added to the cost of printing the whole (on demand) book on good paper. As an e-text, it is much better. I think that’s a reasonable price at $2.95.
Amazon and Book Pricing, in part, the price set for both those texts reflects a modest margin for me, as the author. While I consider them works of love, as a business person, I would like to see some profit from those labors, as well. As an artist, purely from an artistic point of seeing this, I figure the products, as books, are overpriced. However, I know there’s a sliding fee schedule, a weird balance point between profit and storage, bandwidth and white space, some ticklish, perhaps fickle area where it all makes sense.
As books, both my examples are way over-priced. I’ll happily admit that. As examples, those, both these books make good electronic versions.
The original quote, from the first link, had to do with fascination, admiration and disgust with amazon and their pricing models. In the first run of books, that required me to ship to amazon fulfillment centers, copies of my book. One of those backward-forward motions. I don’t think I ever made any money directly, merely from the amazon affiliate link.
Publishing has changed, and I was in the middle of the revolution; never realized it.
