rykline
New Member
Posts: 7
Joined: Apr 2, 2012 6:25:51 GMT -8
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Post by rykline on May 8, 2012 12:49:38 GMT -8
My recent ebook, "Assignment San Miguel", achieved Premium Status about 3 weeks ago ans showed up on Apple yesterday. It still hasn't hit B&N. It's free on Smashwords and on Apple but at $2.99 on Amazon. How long does it usually take for Amazon to bring their price down to "free" once the book is free in another channel? Thanks See my published e-books and personalized gifts at: www.rykline.comSent from my iPad
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Post by Ted on May 8, 2012 13:31:17 GMT -8
The Amazon bot is fairly fast. You should see a change within 2 weeks.
You won't see any price change in your Amazon KDP Bookself when a book is free. The original price, or minimum price of $0.99, will be displayed.
To see if your book is actually free you'll have to look on Amazon itself and not the KDP Bookself.
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bobinma
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Posts: 15
Joined: Jun 17, 2012 6:10:03 GMT -8
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Post by bobinma on Jun 17, 2012 6:17:52 GMT -8
I've read about people doing this, but doesn't it annoy Amazon?
Has any one suffered consequences? For instance, they could disallow you from uploading books.
It seems analogous to people trying to game Google's search results, and then find themselves on a blacklist.
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Post by Ted on Jun 17, 2012 8:13:23 GMT -8
I've read about people doing this, but doesn't it annoy Amazon? Has any one suffered consequences? For instance, they could disallow you from uploading books. It seems analogous to people trying to game Google's search results, and then find themselves on a blacklist. bobinma, the problem is with Amazon not the people offering ebooks for free as Amazon doesn't allow authors to set a price below 99 cents. There is no attempt to scam google or Amazon or do anything that is against Amazon's Terms of Service, it's just that Amazon makes it difficult for people to offer ebooks for free when the same ebook is offered for free at other retailers. According to Amazon forums and Amazon help information the only way for Amazon to ensure a free ebook price on Amazon matches the free price at other retailers is to let their robot crawl the web. Once the Amazon bot confirms an ebook is offered for free at other retailers the price is changed on the Amazon ebook sales site, but not on the Bookself of an author where the price remains a minimum of 99 cents. It seems silly to me that an author can't set the price for free on Amazon, but they insist the lowest price be 99 cents.
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jenniferp
SWF Writers
Posts: 111
Joined: Mar 29, 2012 6:47:30 GMT -8
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Post by jenniferp on Jun 17, 2012 9:45:07 GMT -8
Also, be careful. Somebody on another forum got a nastygram from Amazon for 'selling material available for free elsewhere on the web'. It appears that they have a bot set up to try and nail the PLR people and are demanding people prove ownership.
The 'material available for free' was an unauthorized pirated copy of his book.
And it's not silly, Ted. Amazon makes no money off of it if its free. It actually makes good business sense.
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bobinma
New Member
Posts: 15
Joined: Jun 17, 2012 6:10:03 GMT -8
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Post by bobinma on Jun 17, 2012 10:17:36 GMT -8
Ted,
I just checked the Terms and Conditions and you're right. It doesn't say you can't list it for less elsewhere, it just says they have the right to set their price to match. Actually, they reserve the right to sell it for whatever they want.
Now that I think about it, they probably couldn't force you to give away pricing rights elsewhere without getting into anti-trust trouble.
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Post by Ted on Jun 17, 2012 13:16:31 GMT -8
... And it's not silly, Ted. Amazon makes no money off of it if its free. It actually makes good business sense. Neither the author nor the retailer/distributor makes any money when an ebook is free. But everyone profits in one fashion or another through the free ebooks. The silliness I referred to was the fact that Amazon has created a bot to check prices at other retailers, including free ebooks, and adjusts the sale price on the Amazon site and yet won't allow authors to set the price at zero in the first place. Authors instead have to set the price at 99 cents and wait weeks until the Amazon bot reports back, and keep their fingers crossed no one bought it for 99 cents and gets peeved off when it later reverts to what should have been the original price of zero. Yes the buyer may get a refund, but it still looks bad for the author that first it was 99 cents and after a while it was free.
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amostfairchild
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Posts: 12
Joined: Mar 27, 2012 18:41:47 GMT -8
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Post by amostfairchild on Jun 17, 2012 16:50:51 GMT -8
It does make good business sense to set a free price. I make far more overall from a series (and so does Amazon) when the first book is set free.
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