# Amazon to end price parity requirement



## Armchair Writer (Jun 26, 2018)

It appears that Amazon will end its policy of requiring third party sellers to sell their products at the lowest price they offer it on other sites.

https://www.axios.com/amazon-price-practice-antitrust-elizabeth-warren-d802ba71-d376-4316-b9dc-cca4540959ac.html

I would assume this would apply to books as well -- though, of course, it was never enforced for books.

However, if they are changing this in fear of anti-trust investigations, one has to wonder if the exclusivity requirements for Select and KU might also be dropped as well. Clearly these policies are an abuse of Amazon near-monopoly power, since this policy makes no business sense other than an attempt to limit the selection, and therefor, the competitiveness of other ebook retailers. After all, who is going to buy a book from a competitor when they can read it for free on KU?


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Never enforced? I beg to differ. A lot of us got nasty-grams in the past, especially when Google Play would up and decide to discount things without asking. 

That said, I'll be interested to see how this plays out.  Amazon tends to segregate their indie author pool from their other 3rd party vendors at their whim.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Armchair Writer said:


> It appears that Amazon will end its policy of requiring third party sellers to sell their products at the lowest price they offer it on other sites.
> 
> https://www.axios.com/amazon-price-practice-antitrust-elizabeth-warren-d802ba71-d376-4316-b9dc-cca4540959ac.html
> 
> I would assume this would apply to books as well -- though, of course, it was never enforced for books.


It was enforced for eBooks--and it was enforced poorly. I had a box set I couldn't get the price raised on for over 2 weeks last year. It sucked. I should have unpublished it. It cost me a lot of money; I couldn't advertise my permafree while the stupid thing was 99-cents because it killed the ROI on my advertising. And advertising a 99-cent wide box set is a losing proposition ... newsletter swaps are about the only thing that make sense, but if your book will revert at any time to the correct price that isn't an option either.

I kept thinking if they did that to a big publisher, they'd get sued. I hope this ends.



Armchair Writer said:


> ... who is going to buy a book from a competitor when they can read it for free on KU?


KU isn't free. It is a subscription service after the first introductory period. For a lot of whale readers, even Amazon shoppers, there aren't enough of the books they want in KU. They borrow their trad pubbed books from libraries and buy the indie books they want to read.


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

Ending the price-matching mandate on ebooks would be HUGE.


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

although if amazon stopped enforcing matching prices entirely, it could eliminate Permafree.


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## Kathy Dee (Aug 27, 2016)

You don't need to be exclusive, in Kobo, in order to get your book into their subscription program. Isn't it about time Amazon dropped that requirement?


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## Dpock (Oct 31, 2016)

DirkM said:


> For a lot of wide authors it would be horrible.


How so? (Curious.)


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## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

I'd be find with ending all the restrictions. 

Control my own prices and set them how I like.

Be in KU and still stay wide.

Also, end KU bonuses. They make no sense, except as incentives to stay exclusive--and they invite abuse.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Am I missing something? I don't see how this has anything to do with ebook pricing. It's for 3rd party sellers. I suppose it could lead to changes in ebook pricing but I'm skeptical.


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

Monique said:


> Am I missing something? I don't see how this has anything to do with ebook pricing. It's for 3rd party sellers. I suppose it could lead to changes in ebook pricing but I'm skeptical.


i sent an email to KDP this afternoon with a link to a CNN article about it, to see if it affected ebooks. No response so far.


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

Dpock said:


> How so? (Curious.)


Select authors have 5 free days for every 90 to use for short-term sales. Wide authors not in Select can only get books on Amazon free by asking them to price match.


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## Dpock (Oct 31, 2016)

GeneDoucette said:


> Select authors have 5 free days for every 90 to use for short-term sales. Wide authors not in Select can only get books on Amazon free by asking them to price match.


Okay thanks... I'd love to see free books disappear completely and $0.99 price-point restricted for all books (like to 30 days max).


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## &quot;Serious&quot; ... but not really (Aug 14, 2017)

GeneDoucette said:


> Select authors have 5 free days for every 90 to use for short-term sales. Wide authors not in Select can only get books on Amazon free by asking them to price match.


The top 100 free books looks interesting. But not many (or any) show up in my genre. But if your "Select" 5 day $0 promo only shows up if it makes the top 100 free list, your efforts are wasted I think. I don't think permafree shows up in that list. Hope not. I bet that list is for "Select" free promos. I did find 2 I liked this time out of the 100 top. There could be several hundred $0 promos going on , but Amazon only lets you see the top 100 free.

So if you are ONLY using Amazon to promote your books (Select), and your only real chance is hitting the top 100 in 5 days, why do a $0 promo? If I as a reader could drill deeper into all (and only) the 5 day $0 promos (beyond the top 100) I would be happier.

Can I do that?

I have picked up all the permafree in the genre I like. I have already diss'ed a lot. A lot more to come. I am looking for new good stuff.

It seems Amazon has authors and new authors in a corner. Maybe they open it up for readers a bit is how I see it.


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## &quot;Serious&quot; ... but not really (Aug 14, 2017)

Dpock said:


> Okay thanks... I'd love to see free books disappear completely and $0.99 price-point restricted for all books (like to 30 days max).


No. Keep 'em free - at least for 5 days (they can promote again in 90 days)... but let us drill deeper into the "Select" $0 promos beyond the top 100 free. If I find a good read, MAYBE I buy that author's other book or books. Perma Free seems a bit of a bust to me, its age has passed, a waste of cyber space. Now that can go ... long live Select $0 promos - just expand the search ability. But then my TBR would be filled of new books and I not spend $. But if the author is good? I might let go of a couple bucks. After all it is free to publish ...

flame shield on! ((((  ))))


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## ShaneCarrow (Jul 26, 2017)

GeneDoucette said:


> Select authors have 5 free days for every 90 to use for short-term sales. Wide authors not in Select can only get books on Amazon free by asking them to price match.


But if they scrap price parity requirements surely they would also scrap the 99c minimum?


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

Dpock said:


> Okay thanks... I'd love to see free books disappear completely and $0.99 price-point restricted for all books (like to 30 days max).


That would really screw a lot of authors who write shorter stuff.

Also, why should Amazon have any say in what price a person wants to set for their books?


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## &quot;Serious&quot; ... but not really (Aug 14, 2017)

ShaneCarrow said:


> But if they scrap price parity requirements surely they would also scrap the 99c minimum?


So are you wanting to go lower? Okay by me. 25c for a book if it is halfway readable from an Indie ... maybe ... but that would whack KU program pretty hard. But for authors who only do shorts ... 25c would look like a great price target (if Amazon would wall off sections better)

Or, you are wanting prices to be higher? If you are Select you can price your book at $50 and a KU reader may or may not pick it up even still. Select book price to a KU member means nothing. And $0.99 bothers you?

I don't see the Amazon KDP, Select, AMS, and KU ecosystem (and the royalty marks) changing much. Which means $0 and $0.99 promos stay to keep new authors coming in and promoting. I just want them to expand the Top 100 free for more browsing easier, they are there, let me see them easier. I will buy if it is good. Amazon can't control that.

For all intents Amazon has a monopoly with books from Indies; it fits Amazon's ecosystem model. The Beast feeds itself. If they change anything I bet they just make it easier for them.


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## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

Dpock said:


> Okay thanks... I'd love to see free books disappear completely and $0.99 price-point restricted for all books (like to 30 days max).


Why?

That would shrink the market and make it much harder for people to discover new authors...well, on Amazon.

In fact, maybe that is a good idea--because it would drive all that wonderful discovery traffic to everyone except Amazon.


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## Dpock (Oct 31, 2016)

David VanDyke said:


> Why?
> 
> In fact, maybe that is a good idea--because it would drive all that wonderful discovery traffic to everyone except Amazon.


If "discovery traffic" is a euphemism for "freebie hunters" I'm all for free books migrating to other platforms.

I do understand the logic of offering a free book for marketing purposes, but permafree? Even for series, the sell-thru numbers others have shared on this board are not exciting. Many heavy-hitters swear by permafree, but if the option disappeared, I doubt their sales would suffer.


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## ShaneCarrow (Jul 26, 2017)

Can't speak for anyone else but my flowthrough is pretty good and I'd happily make the first book in my series permafree if I could.


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## &quot;Serious&quot; ... but not really (Aug 14, 2017)

Dpock said:


> If "discovery traffic" is a euphemism for "freebie hunters" I'm all for free books migrating to other platforms.
> 
> I do understand the logic of offering a free book for marketing purposes, but permafree? Even for series, the sell-thru numbers others have shared on this board are not exciting. Many heavy-hitters swear by permafree, but if the option disappeared, I doubt their sales would suffer.


No. I don't think it is a euphemism. I am a freebie hunter. The KU program is 100x more so freebie hunters than me (it just costs them $10 a month and it IS al-la-cart on ALL Select books - that authors aren't getting enough read-throughs is not my problem. I might pay for a book if the free one by the author is good (RARE!).

But we are in an age now were the number of good free ones is on the uptick in a big way I think. The old perma-free philosophy is what is dying - this is a WIDE author's way of promos - some Select authors do this too. I pass them up now.

I am into the top 100 free - I want new authors and new works floating by all the time - I want the chance to find a good author to follow; if the price of their other books are fair (cheap) and I like them - by golly I will likely buy their $2.99 or .99c books - I know I can sort of trust their work by then. - I just want to go deeper than 100 into that $0 promo stack and can't - Amazon shuts that down by showing only the Top 100 free. I guess until then ... I do have the Top 100 free, which is fine for now as it seems to be getting better, but it is strange that is all I can see easily on the $0 Select promos ...

New authors are fighting-for-air so to speak trying to get visibility and it cost them $ and they are p*ssed. Select $0 promos is Amazon's gimmick, they need to make it work better for authors and readers

5 days out of 90, authors are up to bat and only the ranked top 100 free gets visibility? Not fair to the authors I think. As those below the top 100 free are ranked I am sure (you just can't see them), Amazon, "Come on!" Show them as an alternative so we can dig deeper ... after 5 days they fall off the Free list. So this has little impact on the KU program even if I could drill deeper. So why not open that up more or all the way I wonder ...

I do feel lucky though that I can at least look at the best ranked in the Top 100 Free ... that IS part of Amazon's ecosystem ... it won't go away.


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

I received a response from KDP that was... largely unhelpful, but my initial takeaway is that this change does not, strictly speaking, apply to the KDP program. The key is the words "third-party sellers". In books, that only applies to print books being resold through Amazon.

The articles I've seen indicate this change had already been made in the UK, and nobody selling ebooks in the UK, to my knowledge, was free of the TOS barring us from pricing our books differently elsewhere.

The better question is, why can't the same argument apply to ebooks, going forward?


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

GeneDoucette said:


> I received a response from KDP that was... largely unhelpful, but my initial takeaway is that this change does not, strictly speaking, apply to the KDP program. The key is the words "third-party sellers". In books, that only applies to print books being resold through Amazon.
> 
> The articles I've seen indicate this change had already been made in the UK, and nobody selling ebooks in the UK, to my knowledge, was free of the TOS barring us from pricing our books differently elsewhere.
> 
> The better question is, why can't the same argument apply to ebooks, going forward?


I followed up with a phone call, and confirmed that Amazon's price-match policy and TOS remains unchanged at this time. The question of whether it SHOULD remain unchanged in light of the news, is something beyond the scope of the folks at KDP.


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## Anna Rose (Jan 13, 2019)

ShaneCarrow said:


> Can't speak for anyone else but my flowthrough is pretty good and I'd happily make the first book in my series permafree if I could.


Can't you take book 1 out of KU and list it wide, then make it free and have Amazon price match?


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## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

If you can't get the tools to work, blame the tools...


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## ShaneCarrow (Jul 26, 2017)

Anna Rose said:


> Can't you take book 1 out of KU and list it wide, then make it free and have Amazon price match?


I could, but I suspect being in KU is the more important hook factor than being free entirely.


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