I’ve raised and lowered the price of ebooks in the past without problem–until now.

Right now most of my books are for sale only at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Both stores have a policy that you have to offer the books at the lowest cost they’re offered anywhere. If you don’t, they will adjust the price for you.

In late April I released my latest novel, The Dread Hammer, under my pen name, Trey Shiels. I set the price of the ebook at $2.99 as an introductory special, good through May. Late on May 31 I updated the pricing to put it in line with my other novels, raising it to $4.99.

On June 1 I saw this:

My first thought was “huh?” My second was “is it part of the sunshine deals promotion?” My third was “uh oh.”

I’ve never heard how long it takes either Amazon or B&N to figure out that a list price is higher at their store than at the competitor, but I’ve had the impression from people that it takes several days.

Suppose that’s not the case anymore.

Suppose that, before processing the price change, Amazon executes a quick, automated inquiry to B&N, finds the ebook listed at $2.99, and converts my listing to a $4.99 list price with a 40% discount.

Suppose further that B&N institutes a similar fast cross-check system, querying Amazon, and confirming that the book is still being sold there for $2.99–and refuses to raise the price.

I don’t know if this is what’s going on. It’s never a great idea to extrapolate too much from one sample. But The Dread Hammer ebook is still being sold at both stores for $2.99, six days after the price change, and processing of the update appears to be complete at both sites.

An inquiry to Amazon has basically confirmed the B&N price is the reason the book is discounted. I haven’t heard back from B&N.

If neither store will raise the price first, things get complicated. Do I need to take the book off sale at B&N, raise the price at Amazon, then put it back on sale at B&N at the higher price. That seems pretty silly, doesn’t it?

As I said, I’ve raised prices before without problems. Maybe this time around I’m just a victim of bad timing. I’ve been flirting with the idea of doing a 99-cent promotion, but I’m now feeling cautious about lowering the price knowing it might be hard to re-adjust it later.

Feedback? Has anyone else run into this?

Posted on: Monday, June 6th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Categories: Publishing.