In my Amazon bleg yesterday, I asked for readers’ help in contacting Amazon to persuade them to fix the mistake of charging an unrealistically high price for the Kindle version of my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter. I am happy to be able to say that, today, Amazon lowered the price from $20.19 back to the original $15.37.
I am grateful to VC reader Karl Erich Martell of the New Mexico Department of the Public Defender for bringing this issue to the attention of a contact of his at Amazon, and to Amazon for addressing the problem quickly. I can’t be certain that Mr. Martell’s efforts were what caused the change (it’s possible that Amazon did so on the basis of the message I sent them earlier, or for reasons of their own). But the timing suggests that his and his contact’s efforts quite possibly did make a difference, for which I am very grateful.
In response to the many commenters and others who raised the issue, I should note that – long before this particular incident – I did all I could to urge the publisher to lower the price of the book on their end, as well. For example, it was my idea to have an initial paperback edition of the book instead of just a hardcover (which would have been more expensive).