By Stephen Windwalker
Editor of Kindle Nation Daily ©Kindle Nation Daily 2010
First, thanks to Ken for writing in with a very understandable question recently:
Steve, is there ever a difference in the price of a download, depending on whether it is bought from one’s Kindle or from a link from your web site? I downloaded one the other day from your web site at $2.99, and then 2 days later when I went to Amazon I noticed it was $1.
Ken went on to say that he had called customer support and received a credit for the difference between the two prices.
First, Ken, no, there is absolutely never a price differential between the price that is available when you buy a Kindle book directly from your Kindle and the price that you would get when you buy a Kindle book from the main Amazon website’s version of the Kindle Store, whether you get there from Kindle Nation Daily or another website. Something different and interesting happened in this case, and it is worth explaining, in part because other Kindle Nation citizens may also be able to obtain a credit either in this case or similar cases should you notice them in the future.
The book in question was a very interesting novel by Henry Baum, The American Book of the Dead
, which stirred up considerable interest among Kindle Nation citizens when it appeared — at a price of $2.99 — as this website’s daily sponsor this past Saturday. The book jumped immediately into the top 2,000 bestselling ebooks among over 700,000 titles in the Kindle Store, and appeared to be headed higher when — thud — it was delisted by Amazon.
Although I have been on vacation since Friday, I’ve been checking in for two hours a day and saw that I had received some emails and post comments from readers who were unable to purchase and download The American Book of the Dead, in addition to a somewhat distressed email from the author, Mr. Baum. I wrote to my contacts at Amazon, who investigated the situation and wrote back immediately. (This is one of the things I love about the Kindle team these day; I heard from a Kindle team manager 16 minutes after I wrote to him in what were, in Seattle, the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning!)
Long story short, most authors and publishers who publish their books in Kindle editions agree to offer them at as low a price on the Kindle platform as any offered price on any other website. In this case, through no fault of the author’s, The American Book of the Dead was inadvertently being offered at a lower price on another ebook venue. The Kindle team contacted the author as well as me, and I am pleased to report that all concerned moved quickly and decisively so that The American Book of the Dead is once again available in the Kindle Store, and it is now available for just one dollar – yes, that’s $1 in American folding money!
If you were one of those who purchased The American Book of the Dead at its previous price of $2.99 on Saturday, I encourage you to contact Kindle Support
right away to request a credit for the price difference. You can click on the link above or call the toll-free number at 1-866-321-8851. The 10-digit ASIN for The American Book of the Dead is B002VBWDVU.
Although the situation may have been a bit stressful for the author and perhaps even for a few of our readers, I’m also pleased to see how hard Amazon is working to make sure that Kindle Store prices are competitive, and I am equally pleased at the lightning fast response of all concerned.
And, just in case you need a reminder about this fascinating and ambitious novel, here are a few lines from our Saturday post:
“If you read Lolita or A Clockwork Orange without drop-kicking the book out into the garden on a rainy day, this novel is for you.” Tessa Dick, author of The Owl in Daylight, widow of Philip K. Dick
4.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
Eugene Myers is working on a novel about the end of the world. Meanwhile, he discovers his daughter doing porn online and his marriage is coming to an end. When he begins dreaming about people who turn out to be real, he wonders if his novel is real as well. Which isn’t good news: the radical and demented President Winchell is bent on bringing about worldwide destruction. Eugene Myers may just be the one to stop the apocalypse.
This history of the future covers every conspiracy imaginable: UFOs, secret societies, and World War III, as well as theories on life after death and human evolution. In the tradition of Philip K. Dick and Robert Anton Wilson, The American Book of the Dead explores the nature of reality and the human race’s potential to either disintegrate or evolve.
“Reminiscent of Philip K. Dick and Haruki Murakami, a book that boldly explores the future and defies genre.” –Largehearted Boy
Winner: Best Fiction at the DIY Book Festival
Winner: The Gold IPPY Award for Visionary Fiction
