I will try to recap this for you without going into great detail. I self-published my book "Mission Possible" through my publishing company, and had an independent press print 750 copies for me to begin with. I secured distribution into Ingram/Spring Arbor through a company in New York. I have shipped them books more than once. I also started an Amazon Advantage account and listed my book for sale. This was my first exposure to selling on Amazon, and as such, did not fully understand how it really worked. But I believe I have finally figured out my dilema...
I believe there were "book sellers" that purchased my book at a discount through the distributor, and then listed them for sale on Amazon. There was no other way for them to get my book other than getting them directly from me or from the distributor. They always had a cheaper price than I did on Amazon because I had to sell for retail (or could only adjust the price every now & then). I was so frustrated until I realized I might be able to "beat the system".
Follow me here -
I started another Amazon seller account - same email - but different password. I uploaded the info, and listed it for less than the cheapest seller by almost $1.00 . Since I own all of my own books (and have them here physically) I could sell for whatever I wanted to and even undercut them. And yes, I'm still making a profit :)
Below is the link to the page, and you can see that I am the first seller listed! If you hit the "return to product information" and go back to the book listing page, you'll see I have it for sale for $9.95 (I sell it for $7.95 on my website - includes free shipping).
Does any of this make sense to you? I believe I might actually sell some books on Amazon now :) Love to hear your comments!