Let me explain. It's not a marketing tactic, it's another one of the wonderful experiences Amazon dishes out to their KPD authors.
I have made it a habit of checking my Amazon book pages to make sure the pricing is accurate—see where this is going? It is a bit of a pain going between the different country's platforms because it you are on your book page and switch regions, you don't go to your book page, but to the main Amazon page, so you have to search for your book for each country.
Why don't you just bookmark each page?
Oh, good idea. I know. I'm full of them.
You're full of something . . .
Last week, I noticed on the Canadian site that the price of my paperback, The Second View, was $12.41:
Now I know that the Canadian dollar has taken a tumble on the markets in recent weeks against the US greenback but this seemed a little excessive. So, I did my due diligence and visited my now bookmarked author pages and discovered that Book One was $9.51, which is correct with the exchange.
Rolling up my sleeves, I prepared myself for the inevitable frustration of dealing with the cut-and-paste responses from the Amazon CSR. I was not disappointed. Their solution:
"Change the price of your book on your KDP dashboard."
Umm, that was not the issue as I carefully explained. So I carefully re-explained and got a response from a different CSR. A different one? Wouldn't it make more sense to deal with the same CSR? But, that's a completely different aggravation, isn't it? Anyway, they said:
I hope your day is going well. (It's not. Thanks for asking) I’m sorry that you're having issues with the price of your book in the CA marketplace.(Are you really?)Thank you for bringing this to our attention. (Somebody had to.) We need a little time to look into the problem with the pricing of your book.(A little time? Can you be more vague?) We’ll reply and send you more information within 2-3 business days. (Understand if I don't hold my breath.)Thanks for your patience.(Pfft.)
In conclusion, if you were planning on purchasing The Second View in paperback on the Canadian Amazon site, don't.
Well, not yet . . . I'll let you know in, well, 2-3 business days?
Update: After doing some research on the weekend, another author suggested republishing my book, which I did, which corrected the error. The price for the paperback on the Canadian site is now $9.71.
Update update: This morning I received an email from the lovely Amazon CSR stating:
"The price of your book is now updated to $9.71 on the CA marketplace."
Merchandise (See, I told you it was here.) In my Zazzle Store: There are always sales going on in my store (I don't set them), usually between 10-20% and sometimes as much as 50%!
