Monday, December 16, 2013

Indie Author SOS ~ Weirdness!

So I was checking out the listing for my book, That Fatal Kiss, on Amazon.com (yeah, I was eyeballing the Amazon Best Sellers Rank, which I've been doing daily since I released it in September) (OK, I look at TFK's ABSR several times a day; gimme a break, this is all new to me and I've got compulsive tendencies) when I noticed something weird. It struck me as so utterly bizarre that I squinted, really hard, at my laptop screen (and I do my damnedest not to squint, 'cause I can't afford the wrinkles). I even asked someone at my day job to take a look at it, as I just really couldn't believe what I was seeing. Here's a piccie of The Weirdness (hint: look closely at the pricing in the rectangular box):




Do you see that Used Paperback price, through Amazon.com Marketplace? Someone's listed for sale a used paperback copy of TFK for almost a thousand dollars.

Someone has listed for sale a used paperback copy of TFK for almost a thousand dollars.

Uh...what?

Say what???

Seriously, what the actual fuck? For realz? C'mon, that's gotta be a typo, right? The seller meant, like, 99 cents, probably, right? Right?!

So I e-mailed the good people over at Amazon.com, just asking if that was a legit listing, and was given some canned response about sellers being able to ask any price they want for the items they put up for sale.

Yeah, that's fine, but what the hell did the seller do to that copy to warrant a ticket price of $999.11? Gild the page edges with actual gold, melted down in a vat in his basement? Embed in it some new stripe of artificial intelligence, so that it can do your homework (and/or taxes) for you, on demand? 
Imbue it with such mighty mystical powers that, if carried around as a charm, it'd keep mosquitoes and zits at bay for, like, forever? ('Cause that would be rather impressive, wouldn't it?)

I'm tempted to write the seller and ask her/him to let me know if it sells at that price, just to see if s/he discovers (and owns up to) an error in pricing. 'Cause that's totally a mistake. It's just gotta be. Or a cruel, cruel joke.

Indie (and/or traditionally published) authors of teh Blogosphere: any o' y'all seen some shit like that? If so, did it weird you out? If so, did you do anything about it? Should I be doing something about it??? (Probably not, but this thing's just do weirdly weird that I had to toss in a few more question marks somewhere...)

14 comments:

  1. Ack, that price is insane. I'd expect it to be some kind of error, too. I don't think you need to do anything about it, though. After all, it's not like that's suddenly the list price for brand new copies of your book. It's only affecting a single used copy!

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    1. Dude, if that could *ever* be the list price for a book of mine, I'd eat it. (The book.) (With some chianti and fava beans.) ;-)

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  2. I've seen lots of those listings for used books with $6 books going from $200 up to $999. It's not a typo. It must be some crazy person who hopes that some crazier person will just hit the buy button. The world is full of weirdos...

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    1. Truer words never spoken, dear Lexa. Truer words...

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  3. Lexa is right - it happens all the time. Someone hedging their bets? Who knows maybe someday it will sell for $999! I've seen it many times and if you watch the folks selling the used books, they change the price on a constant basis to follow the market. I hope soon it's listed as $9999! LOL

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  4. Wow that's weird for sure. Isn't there any way you can get a cut of that, were the person to actually get that price??? Or better yet, YOU start gilding pages in gold and sell them for that price!!!!

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    1. Yowza, that last bit sounds like too much real work for my lazy arse... ;-)

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  5. Huh. I looked at that seller's other listings, and there are other random books at that random ridiculous price. Weird. Maybe that's for items that they really don't want to sell but just can't stop themselves from listing. You know. A compulsion.

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    1. Hmmm, wonder if the DSM's got a listing for that...

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  6. Um, maybe it's a signed copy? A genuine "Mina Lobo" signature might command that sort of price...

    Or if it included a one-of-a-kind candid photo of you in the shower or something?

    Who knows what your adorning public might be willing to pay for something like THAT?

    *** checks pockets and wallet to see how much cash is in them ***

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    1. err. "adoring public". But maybe it works? Your adorning public is eager to see the author unadorned?

      ...damn misspelling...

      But at least I didn't leave the "L" out of public -- THAT would have really been embarrassing!

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    2. LOL, Chris. I think I'm more likely to have folks offer me money to keep my clothes on... :-)

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  7. Wow!!!! I think you should get a cut of that!!!

    Hugs!

    Valerie

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