Book Pricing and CAD
February 28th, 2015 by PotatoThe Canadian dollar has declined a fair bit over the past few months, making things produced in the US more expensive for us, including books like The Value of Simple. The CAD has dropped over 12% since I set the price of the book, and almost 9% from the release date. I wanted to set the price in CAD because the book is intended for Canadian readers, and I don’t want the price to fluctuate with every little move in the exchange rate — even if I have to absorb those fluctuations from my margin. So ideally this should all be invisible to potential buyers — the price stays at $16.95 until the exchange rate gets so painful that a price increase has to be passed along.
I do not know what happens behind the scenes in the book distribution chain, but Amazon and Indigo have never had quite the right price for the print book, and their price fluctuates over time. Just two weeks ago Amazon had a sale on the book, selling it for less than I do when I sell it at in-person events with no shipping costs. Now this week they have it at $1.50 over the list price (and $4 higher than the sale price). To try to fix this I’ve lowered the (hidden to the public, but existing in the distributor’s catalog) USD price on the book to reflect the new exchange rate, in the hopes that that’s the source of the new, higher price and that the price will get back to where it should be soon.
In the meantime, you can always order directly from me using the online store at the correct price if the Value of Simple is all you’re ordering — if you’re buying more and are eligible for free shipping, then even the erroneous Amazon/Indigo price may work out better for you on the whole (and their shipping with Canad Post is somehow magically faster than my shipments with Canada Post).
Speaking of the direct purchase option, my inventory from the first print run is getting low. In the store software the print book alone and the print and e-book bundle are treated as separate products with their own inventory counts, so I’m trying to balance the remaining units between the two options so you can choose what fits best for you — if one ends up sold out while the other still has stock then it’s quite likely you can order the out-of-stock option and I’ll still be able to fill the order immediately.
Note that I do have direct control over the e-book pricing, even at Amazon and Kobo, so those prices have not fluctuated at all with the exchange rate changes.