Things have been going pretty well with the launch of the book on Amazon recently, and most previous Amazon issues seem to have been resolved.
The book is now showing as fully available on the US and UK sites, and also as “In Stock” in France and Germany. However, somewhat mysteriously, it shows a taking between 1 to 4 weeks to ship from the Canadian site. I have had around five orders sent out from Amazon.ca, and it didn’t take too long at all.
The biggest mystery is the pricing of the book. I did intend to write this blog about the book being reduced by 9% on Amazon.com, as for the last week or so the book has been on offer at $13.70. But unfortunately this morning the price is back up to the retail figure of $14.99.
The Canadian pricing has been equally unusual. When the book first appeared on the site the price was quickly discounted to C$11.21, a great bargain. Over the following days that became $11.18, and then $11.14. This represents a 26% discount, which is utterly mystifying, as Amazon only make 20% on the book!
Along with free postage on orders over $25, I couldn’t resist. I ordered 20 copies! Once I get my sales commission back from the printer, I actually pay less per copy than I would have to if I ordered direct from the printer, and as an added bonus Amazon foots the bill to get the book to me.
This has the dual advantages of giving me a few sample copies for a bargain price, and twenty extra sales on Amazon, which can’t hurt my ranking in Amazon’s system! Marvellous!
The Canadian price is obviously calculated based on the US price, and with the US and Canadian dollar being almost on par, the standard price on Amazon.ca is C$15.05. unfortunately, as on Amazon.com, the Canadian price returned to full retail price this morning.
European Amazon sites offer an equally confusing and entertaining array of prices. I set a price in Euros of €11.99. In France the price, presumably based on the UK price
in Pounds Sterling, is €11.79, discounted to €11.29. In Germany
it is $15.99 discounted to €13.99 ?!? And in Italy
it is €12.22, discounted by a whopping 30% to a bargain €8.58. Amazon must be losing quite a bit at this price!
It’s all very mysterious, but very interesting.