According to
USA Today, the
The Silkworm, in hardback, was listed at amazon.com, on Thursday morning, as shipping in 1- 2 months.
Later in the day, it was decreased to 2-4 weeks.
The next day, Friday, the reporter found it as shipping in 1-2 days.
The link regarding the above is here:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/b...aith/10861329/
As I write this, on Sunday, it's back to "Usually ships within 2 to 4 weeks".
There also have been price gyrations; now it is 40% off, but I recall it was earlier 10% off.
Is it plausible to think that in the just three days this book has been released, Amazon marketeers have learned from experience that it once took 1-2 months to get a shipment, and then took 2-4 weeks, and then went down to 1-2 days, and now is back to 2-4 weeks? No. Not enough time. So Amazon must be, hour by hour, altering the customer experience for their own strategic reasons.
Could it be that when the hardback price is high (80 percent+ of list), estimated shipping time is low, and visa versa? If so, the strategy is to keep customers coming back to amazon.com, looking for the elusive low price/fast shipping alternative, until they finally give up and buy a non-Hachette product.
Alternately, it could be that customer behavior varies at different times of day and of the week, and Amazon has to adjust its anti-Hachette manuvering to minimize driving people over to kobo.com or
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/.
Is this game, whatever the rationale, by itself, morally wrong? No, it all depends on who you prefer to do better in the negotiation, Hachette or Amazon.
P.S. I notice that the eBook price, which was earlier $9.99, is now $14.99. Perhaps that has nothing to do with the negotiations. Are Sunday night purchasers willing to pay more?