Will Books Adopt Surge Pricing?

 

Wendy’s made a big media splash this past week by announcing it will rip customers off based on the time of day that people decide to eat unhealthy food that is served by underpaid workers. Could book publishing copy this strategy?

Ok, so I editorialize too much, but the fact is that a burger will cost you more during food rush hour. Why?

They won’t add more workers to the shift to get the food faster to you. They won’t make the food taste better in one hour vs another. There won’t be any menu changes. Why are they penalizing customers who are there most likely because they are either poor, nutritionally misinformed, or junk-addicted?

Full disclosure: I prefer McDonald’s over all fast-food joints but try not to make it a habit, but I do digress here. My wife is a nutritionist and tells me the money I save on the fast food can be used for paying a cardiologist.

Many industries price their items based on the calendar or clock. See airlines, uber, and
early-bird discounts in Florida restaurants for examples. My local movie house offers discounts on Wednesdays and sports teams charge for each game based on who the opponent is. Capitalism is about the correlation between demand and price. Never underestimate one’s desire and ability to screw one over if they can.

Anyway, back to book publishing and price surging campaigns. In some ways they already exist in a limited way. During the holiday season, prices are slashed on books so retailers can cash in on the competitive gift-buying season. January is a big slump in book purchases because everyone went on a six-week buying frenzy that drained their bank account and shopping soul between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. 

What moves price in the book world is: 

Publication Date: older books are discounted 

Format: hardcover is highest; ebook is cheapest. 

Retailer: Amazon undercuts Barnes and Noble and both are cheaper than indie bookstores. 

Genre: Photography books tend to cost the most; romance books the least. 

Publisher: Self-published authors can sell a book at any price, even at a loss, from their website, but traditional publishers often keep a higher price integrity in mind — until they remainder unsold books. 

Authors, desperate for sales and readership already see their ebooks for as little as 99 cents. Some offer it for free. Can publishers, bookstores, and libraries make surge pricing a thing? Unlikely.

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.6 million pageviews. With 4,800+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.