Before joining NEWSWEEK, Bailey was an investigative reporter at the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington
I bet more people read Sarah Palin's book than read Newsweak!
Posted on 10/23/2009 12:37:29 PM PDT by bugseye
With just under a month to go before it’s released to the masses, Sarah Palin’s upcoming autobiography, Going Rogue, has already been near the top of Amazon’s bestseller list for weeks. No surprise, considering the enormous amount of interest—both bad and good—the former Alaska governor has generated since John McCain named her as his vice-presidential running mate last year. But there may be more to the story: Over the last week or so, Amazon has been steadily dropping the price of Palin’s book, to compete with other retailers, including Wal-Mart, which offered Palin’s book for pre-sale at $10. Originally listed at $28.99, Amazon is now basically giving the book away for a measly $9. This, as my fellow Newsweeker Sarah Ball notes, is cheaper buying a copy of Pat the Bunny. Heck, even How to Win Friends and Influence People is priced higher.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.newsweek.com ...
Is this “predatory pricing”? If it is, I like it, as a consumer, but I am not likely to ready anything on the top ten, anyway. And if I did, I’d borrow them from the library. My tastes are a lot more esoteric.
Amazon has a price guarantee for preorder items. I preordered at full price, then yesterday, received an email saying the price dropped and I would be credited for the difference.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lossleader.asp
It is just the opposite of what you think. Wal Mart sees the sales are so strong, they want to take advantage of that traffic and drive it to their stores, so they steeply discount the prices, well below wholesale, to try to steer some of the millions of people buying it to their store. Loss Leaders are very common, although you mostly see them around holiday season. Wal Mart did them last year with Bluray players as they were the hot item. They sold them for far less than the competition to get traffic in their stores.
Before joining NEWSWEEK, Bailey was an investigative reporter at the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington
I bet more people read Sarah Palin's book than read Newsweak!
Yep, if they can get you in the door they hope you will buy other books that they can profit from. Its a time tested marketing ploy.
You have to love the business geniuses at Newsweek.
This is like any business, but the best example is probably that of grocery stores. They get you in the door with some best-selling product for cheap, and once you’re in they make all of their real profit from all of the stuff you buy at full price.
I haven’t looked, but I’m betting that Amazon makes a lot of money off of Sarah’s book with the ‘People who bought this book also liked...’ suggestions.
Not at all. Predatory pricing implies leading into a trap. This is incentive pricing. It it steering traffic.
I believe “predatory pricing” is a technical term used by a vendor when a competitor is eating his lunch.
John Grisham
Thank you for that notice. I love his books. I will be going to Amazon to order it. I am not buying Sarah’s book because her book exerpts are going to be EVERYWHERE. Why buy it when all I have to do is read it on line through various sources. I am looking forward to hearing what she has to say.
On Amazon and B&N as well as other large booksellers, the more volume a book does the lower the price gets. Within days of it’s release most of the “blockbuster “ novels are discounted as much a 40%. The booksellers are mearly passing along the savings they get from the publishing house for volume sales. Conversely you will see books by little known authors selling for double what these top 10 sellers sell for and for the exact opposite reason.
I just got the latest Vince Flynn novel, just released last week and from a cover price of $28.00 I got it for about $16.00. Flynn has NO problem selling his books, believe me.
These pond scum newsweek or oldsweek writers are clueless. And jealous.
They sizzle with Palin Derangement Syndrome whilst we who appreciate Sarah Palin laugh at their self-inflicted dis-ease.
Silly rabbit.
Communists don’t do business. They don’t understand or want to.
You’d think with King getting old he’d gain some common sense. I’m sure he’ll have some potshots at Cheney, Bush, probably Palin as well hidden in Under the Dome.
I’d say he’s gotten worse, though I was young and not as concerned about politics when I read his classic works. Lisey’s Story was not very good anyway, but he threw in one unnecessary line about Bush. A doctor is trying to determine if Lisey’s sister is mentally competent, so he asks, “Who is the president?” She says, “George W. Bush, to our eternal shame.” Duma Key—another not-so-good one—has numerous similar unnecessary anti-Bush lines. That’s the worst kind, to me. If your story demands a political viewpoint, go for it. But, if it’s completely throwaway and basically serves to say, “Screw you, reader who voted a different way than I!” it really turns me off.
On the other hand, one of his characters in the last Dark Tower book was a Republican who hated Gore. Going by the Amazon.com info, the new one has a Republican lead (let’s see how she’s portrayed) and a character who served in Iraq. We’ll see how that plays out.
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