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Is having a "discounted" title worth the time spent undiscounted?

Hello Scribes,

I am considering doing the oft-recommended increase-price-on-Amazon-so-that-it-appears-discounted-when-Amazon-gets-around-to-seeing-that-the-prices-are-different-and-price-matches technique, but am weighing the pros and cons.

If you haven't seen this yet, then read on as I will describe it. If you have, then cut to the chase and weigh in with the pros and cons as you see it.

Technically, I've had my novel discounted $2 since my Christmas sale, but because of the way Amazon works, it just shows up like that's the normal list price. I've just recently had The Throne of Ao approved for extended distribution in Smashwords, so it will be showing up in the iBookstore amongst others at the current discounted price ($4.99). What is frequently recommended, is increasing the price of the eBook on Amazon to somewhere between the present price and $11.99 (for instance, the $6.99 price before the Christmas sale) so that when Amazon eventually finds that the book is available cheaper, they price match and show the discount.

That is, instead of being listed at "$4.99", it will be listed at "$6.99 $4.99 You save $2.00 (29%)"

The problem is, who knows how long it will take for Amazon to see the price difference? (No seriously, does anyone have experience with this? I've heard it is faster for popular books and some even say if you buy the book a couple different places that Amazon will find out faster)

I'm concerned about (1) people buying at the higher price when it is available cheaper and (2) it staying high for an excessive amount of time.

I would like to have it show up at the original price (I believe I had it at $7.99 way back 8 months and 1 day ago) but be discounted to the present price.

Thank you for your help!

P.S. I've also seen people say that this is how you can get 70% royalty rates for works under $2.99. Basically, set it between $2.99 and $11.99 and discount it elsewhere to between $0.99 and $2.98 and wait for the price match. Supposedly, at least with the ToS those people were working under (it may have been changed), the price match will retain the higher royalty rate even though it is cheaper.
 
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