Amazon is Problematic for Authors

​Amazon is a horse of a different color but unlike the Technicolor horse in the movie, The Wizard of Oz, Amazon is real, and here to stay. However, dealing with the largest online bookseller can be problematic.

Perhaps this has happened to you? Scenario: You buy a book from an author at a presentation at a local bookstore, or at a club or network meeting. A few days, or maybe weeks later, you see the same book on sale on Amazon for less.

Were you ripped off? Do you feel betrayed and a bit angry with the author? After all, why didn’t she tell you it was going on sale?

The answer is simple, she did not know Amazon was going to put it on sale. Amazon is the largest marketplace in the world; so of course, the publisher and author are compelled to list books there. However, Amazon is in the driver’s seat after they list it. They set the rules for selling and they do not negotiate the terms. To make matters even more cumbersome, their rules (behind the public’s view where each book is listed) can change, and often it does, which makes working with the giant bookstore a challenge for publishers and authors, alike.

Amazon is an independent business, just like Sears or Walmart. The author is the creator of the story, and the publisher is the director and producer. Both author and publisher carry copyrights, one on the creative work and one on the publishing rights (copyrights laws are complex and often are misunderstood, so I will not get into the nuances of copyrights now).

The publisher will list books on Amazon and the publisher sets the retail price. The publisher also adds in the descriptions of the books, lists outside reviews, author interviews, and things like that, however, just like with Sears and Walmart, Amazon controls the business of selling the book on its online store (website). Amazon can decide, or not, to run a sale. They decide how much it will be, when it will go on sale, and for how long the sale will run. If Amazon chooses to run a sale on a certain book on their site, they do not consult with the publisher or author, nor do they give them any advance notice of the sale.

Amazon is an online store; there are some nuances between them and a brick and mortar store. Amazon does not buy the books outright from the publisher and how they pay for the books after the sale is handled uniquely, too. The payment that Amazon pays to the publisher is called a royalty payment. Royalties are calculated as a small percent of the retail price, which is even less than a wholesale price, and what is left over after royalties are paid belongs to Amazon. For any of the books that do not sell, neither publisher nor Amazon will make any money on them. Therefore, Amazon often decides to run a sale on individual books and any loss of money due to the hefty sale price is absorbed by Amazon as part of doing business. The publisher’s royalty payment is calculated from the original retail price and not the sale price since the publisher did not create the sale. 

This is only fair since the publisher did not implement the “Special Sale Price” but this can present a problem when the author is actively marketing and selling her books. It can develop a misunderstanding between the author and her buying fans.

After reading about the complexities of online selling with the leading bookseller (Amazon), I hope you will not feel betrayed or deceived by your author when you see the book you bought selling at a lower price on Amazon than what you paid. The author you know has no control over sale prices on Amazon any more than if her book sold at a different price through Target or Walmart.

So, please continue to support your local authors by going to book release parties and author presentations. Enjoy listening to the author’s journey and buy a copy of the book. She has put her heart and soul into writing a story or compiling a great non-fiction book for you. 
Authors appreciate your support and your purchase because writing is their livelihood.

I know, as Your Author Friend, I will do my best to announce as many Amazon sales on my books that I know about, so my reading fans can take advantage of the limited savings offers promoted by Amazon. Sometimes, those sale prices can even be less than what I pay for printing my books, thus that sale which Amazon is offering is called lost leader sale.

In closing, remember, those Amazon sale prices are not set by the authors and she or he cannot match the price for a book you already purchased from her.
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I hope you will love reading what I write and please leave an Amazon review, no matter where you purchase my books. Reviews help readers discover new authors they do not know. So, relax, enjoy, and take time to read a book for yourself, you deserve it.