This is a request to readers who may have contacts at Amazon, or work there. Amazon recently inexplicably raised the price for the Kindle version of my book Democracy and Political Ignorance from the initial $15.37 to 20.19, even though (judging by Amazon’s own rankings) the Kindle version was doing well at the initial price. The new price is way too high, relative to the Kindle prices for comparable books. It is in neither Amazon’s interest nor mine to charge a price so high that hardly anyone will buy the Kindle version.
I have tried to contact Amazon about this. But it seems impossible to reach anyone in authority through their website for authors. I suspect that among our intrepid readers there could be some who have contacts at Amazon who may be able to help. All I need is to speak to a person who has the power to lower the price for as little as 10-15 minutes or even just exchange e-mails with him or her. The case for lowering the price is strong enough that it won’t require any more time than that to explain it. However, the issue does need to be addressed relatively quickly because the official publication date for the book is approaching.
If you refer me to an Amazon contact who can effectively address this issue, I will send you a free copy of the book, autographed or not depending on your preference (unless you are an Amazon employee yourself and you believe it would be a conflict of interest for you to accept the free copy).
Thanks in advance to anyone who is able to help!
UPDATE: I appreciate the advice of several people who have suggested that I contact my publisher, Stanford University Press. Rest assured that this possibility has previously occurred to me, and I have already pursued it. But the Kindle price is largely under Amazon’s control, not my publisher’s. So I think it would be useful for me to speak to someone at Amazon directly.
UPDATE #2: I am happy to report that Amazon has now lowered the price of the Kindle version back to its previous level of $15.37, probably thanks in part to a VC reader who brought the issue to the attention of a contact at Amazon.