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Amazon pricing request confusion

1K views 16 replies 4 participants last post by  kcmorgan 
#1 ·
Has anyone here experienced this situation before?

Three days ago I raised the price of my lead-in, the orange covered book below, to what will be a trilogy, 0.99 to US$2.99. The price of Book 1 would match that of Book 2 in the series. I entered 2.99 on KDP and set all markets to be based on that price in the case of both books. And for both, the royalty was fixed at 70%.

All good so far.

Yesterday, I noticed my repriced book was still the old price of 0.99. It showed on Amazon.com as being US$1.05, but anyway, a few cents here or there. No matter. It was basically unchanged. The price had reverted somehow to the 0.99. Nothing but a glitch.

I sent a request to Author Central to fix the problem.

Today, I find the price is $2.34. I ask myself, 2.34?? When I go to KDP dashboard for this book and check the pricing page I find the price I set matches that of Book 2, just as it should do. Everything is as I set it. Back to the book page, and a quick look at the book on the Series page. Nope. It's definitely $2.34. And, apart from being an odd price it does not match the price of my other Book 2 at $3.00.

Weird, huh?

This morning, about six hours ago from putting together this post (I'm in Australia), I sent another request to fix the problem. This time to both Author Central and KDP Help. I expect these requests to KDP can take considerably more than 12 hours to be addressed, but Author Central is often very quick off the mark. There's no change.

I haven't received any email from Amazon or Author Central to confirm receiving any of my help requests either.

Thoughts?

 
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#2 ·
We in Australia dont see the actual price. We see an adjusted price for Australia.
At a guess, it sounds like an adjusted $1.99 price. Or for some reason, Amazon started discounting it.

Is the book listed anywhere else? If so, there might still be price matching going on. $1.99 for example is the price set in Canada, when you set a Draft to Digital price to 99c, but dont set the countries individually. So if the book was on D2D, and say Canada was never removed, Amazon might be price matching on the Canada D2D price. Just speculating.
 
#3 ·
TimothyEllis said:
We in Australia dont see the actual price. We see an adjusted price for Australia.
At a guess, it sounds like an adjusted $1.99 price. Or for some reason, Amazon started discounting it.

Is the book listed anywhere else? If so, there might still be price matching going on. $1.99 for example is the price set in Canada, when you set a Draft to Digital price to 99c, but dont set the countries individually. So if the book was on D2D, and say Canada was never removed, Amazon might be price matching on the Canada D2D price. Just speculating.
The price difference between the two books should match. There's a 20% difference between them. Yet on the KDP Dashboard pricing page I set them both at identical prices. US$2.99, and set all markets to be based on that price for both books.

Even if I was browsing Amazon.mars.com the prices ought to match, don't you think?

Prices on D2D, Google Play et all were also set at US$2.99.
 
#4 ·
baldricko said:
Prices on D2D, Google Play et all were also set at US$2.99.
Check each country individually, on the D2D pricing screen.
It's possible 1 of them is set wrong.

Then check all of them on the product screens, in case 1 of them hasn't changed yet.
 
#9 ·
kcmorgan said:
Yep, this must be it because Amazon says $2.51 for me, the exact same price it is at Google Play.

To get your book to be $2.99 at Google Play you need to sell it for $3.94.
Yes! I forgot all about that necessary step. Fixed now. I will need to wait for Barnes and Noble. I don't suppose sending them an email will help much at this point. :eek:
 
#10 ·
baldricko said:
Barnes and Noble. Sooo slow to update. Google Play is fixed. I will now wait patiently for Amazon.
What did you put on Google Play? There is a thread around the place which tells you how to price there. From memory when I was there, my 2.99 books were 4.99 on GP, just to make sure they didn't discount below Amazon's price.
 
#11 ·
TimothyEllis said:
What did you put on Google Play? There is a thread around the place which tells you how to price there. From memory when I was there, my 2.99 books were 4.99 on GP, just to make sure they didn't discount below Amazon's price.
Yes. Somewhere, I have a copy, but totally overlooked the pricing trick when I updated.
 
#12 ·
Maybe someone has encountered this before.

After many days of trying to get to the bottom of why Amazon should be dropping the price of my lead-in book by 20%, I see today it is now only when I go to Amazon.com do I see the problem. BTW I'm in Australia. Amazon.com.au has the correct prices.

Is that not a little unusual? Does anyone know what could be happening there?

If someone doesn't mind I would really appreciate a verification. Perhaps, wherever you are in the world, but particularly those of you in the US, you might check for me. Click on the 'Book 1 of 2 in The Erelong Trilogy (2 Book Series)' for the series page to see a clear comparison between the two books - I will have the third up in a bit. Both books should be priced the same.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help out here.
 
#14 ·
Thanks Nathan. That's good news. Yes, they should both be priced at US$2.99.

But, I go to Amazon.com (the US site) and I still get this.

Jubilee Year (Erelong Trilogy Book One) > $2.69
May Day (Erelong Trilogy Book Two) > $2.99

It's a small difference but significant when it comes to a potential buyer. It also means I would get the 35% royalty and not the 70% royalty.

What could be the reason for the price difference on Amazon.com when as seen from Australia? Is that not odd?
 
#15 ·
If you have selected 70%, then you get 70% (not 35%) of the lowered price if they price match.  You cannot set the price that low yourself and still be at 70%, but if you have set it via KDP to 2.99 or above and Amazon chooses to lower it like that, it doesn't bump you down to 35%.

Aside from possible issues with different currencies, I have no idea why you'd see a different price.
 
#17 ·
They are both $2.99 in America. So grats on at least getting that much sorted. No idea how...OH! Check to see if the other stores have Aussie versions that Amazon might be price matching. It would be easier if Amazon just sent a email notifying you of a price match and a link for where they got the price from.
 
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