STEALTH MARKETS

The other day I discovered one of my books on Ebay, going for about twice the price of a POD paperback on Amazon. And I'm pretty sure it was offered as a new book.

I guess that's a thing that can be done these days: Find a book offered as POD on Amazon (or some other place) and put it up yourself for a higher price.

If somebody orders it, buy a POD copy off Amazon, then slam it into your own box to ship to your customer.

And pocket the difference.

In the case of the guy on Ebay, he'd get $12 profit from his customer, and I'd end up with a buck's worth of royalties from Amazon.

Interesting.

Later, I noticed new copies of my stuff on the Walmart website, although I'd have to say their prices are closer to the Amazon prices I set with KDP.

The good news, your stuff could end up on many more commercial sites than you even knew about. You just won't be reaping the full rewards for your literary labors. "Resellers" could do very well with this new publishing model.

Now the question: Should you do it yourself?

Here's a thought: Make the offer on your own site (or blog), but provide your book-seeking fan an autographed copy with a personalized inscription.

Guys on Ebay can't match that. At least, not with your authentic signature.

Now the ethical question: Would you buy "author's copies" at a discount from Amazon and resell them yourself at a higher price? With or without value-added scribblings on the title page?

Does KDP have a policy to cover this? It's not impossible that they do...

Or will have, in the near future.