I fell into the price-change black hole

[Alice Sabo]

Warning 

First of all, I'm wide. So when my 2nd in a new series was about ready, I set a pub date and planned promos for book 1. My worksheet reminds me to change the date 3 days prior so it will percolate through all the retailers in time. I did that.

Secondly - I should have checked. So book 1 got frozen in "Publishing" and I didn't double check on it until the first day of promos. I scrambled to warn the newsletters I'd lined up. Posted on my Facebook page that the book was 99c everywhere but Amazon and emailed Amazon customer support.

Yesterday they said it would be fixed right away and then stopped answering my frantic emails. Today I get an email saying that these things take 2 business days so it won't be fixed until end of day Tuesday. Bummer. Another set of promos to reschedule. Luckily this was a sort of soft release so it isn't killing any social media momentum. But still, now I need to change the price on Amazon 5 days prior? D2D had everything done in no time. Even GPB was changed quickly.

This hasn't happened to me before. I guess I need to be more paranoid about it and keep checking.   

[Bill Hiatt]

Warning 

First of all, I'm wide. So when my 2nd in a new series was about ready, I set a pub date and planned promos for book 1. My worksheet reminds me to change the date 3 days prior so it will percolate through all the retailers in time. I did that.

Secondly - I should have checked. So book 1 got frozen in "Publishing" and I didn't double check on it until the first day of promos. I scrambled to warn the newsletters I'd lined up. Posted on my Facebook page that the book was 99c everywhere but Amazon and emailed Amazon customer support.

Yesterday they said it would be fixed right away and then stopped answering my frantic emails. Today I get an email saying that these things take 2 business days so it won't be fixed until end of day Tuesday. Bummer. Another set of promos to reschedule. Luckily this was a sort of soft release so it isn't killing any social media momentum. But still, now I need to change the price on Amazon 5 days prior? D2D had everything done in no time. Even GPB was changed quickly.

This hasn't happened to me before. I guess I need to be more paranoid about it and keep checking.   

I've been paranoid about that for a long time. So far, I haven't gotten caught, but I do make changes about five days in advance.

As KDP grows in size (without growing in staffing), I'm afraid it gets chancier and chancier. I wish Amazon would automate the price-change part. I'm sure it could be done--if anyone cared.

[TimothyEllis]

Amazon has a thing about book 1's. They take about 3 times longer than any other book to go through. No idea why.

[Bill Hiatt]

Amazon has a thing about book 1's. They take about 3 times longer than any other book to go through. No idea why.

It's the book most likely to be price changed for promotional purposes. I'd guess there are a heck of a lot more requests for book 1 price changes. That could be why it takes longer.

[TimothyEllis]

Amazon has a thing about book 1's. They take about 3 times longer than any other book to go through. No idea why.

It's the book most likely to be price changed for promotional purposes. I'd guess there are a heck of a lot more requests for book 1 price changes. That could be why it takes longer.

If that was the case, then all books would be just as slow. What you're saying suggests book 1's have a completely different assessment path, with much more volume than others. Which doesn't make any sense.

[Alice Sabo]

It's still not fixed. But despite that, I managed to sell 5 books on Amazon yesterday. Not sure at what price. I loaded book 2 yesterday and as soon as it hit, someone bought a copy. I haven't even mentioned that it was available. That makes this a little more bearable.

I have to say that Book Lemur and Read Cheaply have been very accommodating. They are willing to reschedule me whenever the price drops. I never heard back from Ereader Cafe. So that is probably money down the drain. And I'm waiting to hear from Authorxp. Hopefully, the issues will be fixed by end of day and I won't have to cancel another one.

[Bill Hiatt]

Amazon has a thing about book 1's. They take about 3 times longer than any other book to go through. No idea why.

It's the book most likely to be price changed for promotional purposes. I'd guess there are a heck of a lot more requests for book 1 price changes. That could be why it takes longer.

If that was the case, then all books would be just as slow. What you're saying suggests book 1's have a completely different assessment path, with much more volume than others. Which doesn't make any sense.

Well, it doesn't make sense that it would have a different assessment path--but this is Amazon we're talking about. Obviously, something is different, or the time discrepancy you mention wouldn't exist, right?

The other alternative is that all books really are as slow, but we make changes in book 1s more often and under tighter time circumstances, so that's the one we notice. One time, I had a new release in a series and put every book in the series on sale. All the price changes seemed a little draggy, and they all completed at about the same time.

Also, I've noticed a lot of variation in how long it takes a price change to go live. If it were a regular systemic problem, I don't think there'd be that much variation. It could be a random glitch, or it could be a traffic issue. It's hard to distinguish those, because increasing traffic may make glitches more likely. I've long thought that Amazon, despite its web hosting business, doesn't upgrade its own server capacity as fast as its business grows, particularly with regard to backend issues.