If you haven’t, here’s the summary: The default purchase option in what is known as the “buy box” used to be the book’s publisher (either the publishing company or you, the author, if you’re self-published). That’s no longer guaranteed.

With the change, a third-party vendor, not the publisher, might “own” the buy box. This is how Amazon sells other products; it’s now applying that process to print books.

There are several articles about this online, but I found this one from Vox.com, “Amazon made a small change to the way it sells books. Publishers are terrified,” especially helpful.

The Amazon buy box

Here’s what the buy box looks like.

This one is for Neil deGrasse Tyson’s best-selling Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. In this case, the publisher owns the buy box. We know that because the box says “Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.”

Before the policy change, that’s what your book’s print buy box said — “Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.”  Maybe it still does. But maybe it doesn’t.

Now, a third-party vendor might own the buy box for your book or anyone else’s book, for that matter.

How does that happen?

Amazon applies the magic of its mysterious algorithms that take into account the usual factors Amazon uses to award that spot to vendors of other products — low price, high customer rating, and Amazon Prime availability, for starters. It’s a competition to be the featured offer.

What does this look like now?

Here’s what the buy box for Cami Ostman’s memoir, Second Wind: One Woman’s Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents, looked like recently. 

With Amazon’s buy box change, to buy the book from the publisher — as indicated by “Prime/Sold by Amazon.com” — the customer has to:

1. Want to do that
2. Know what to look for
3. Scroll down to find it

Will Amazon shoppers do that?

Most don’t even know about this change. They’re used to buying directly from the publisher with books — will they notice even a slight change in that now?

If they notice that the buy box option looks different, will they scroll down to see the other options?

More importantly will they even care?

Those who want the lowest price possible will like this change. Others probably won’t even notice a difference.

There’s a lot of speculation, but nobody’s really certain yet what Amazon’s buy box change means for authors. It’s hard to hard to know what’s fact and what isn’t.

For example, Publishers Weekly reports that third-party vendors that win the buy box must be selling new books (see “Update” at the end of the article at that link) and that it gives preference to Prime selling accounts. Yet, as I’m writing this, the buy box for the paperback version of Sheryl Sandberg’s Option B offers used books — not new — with a $3.99 shipping charge — not free shipping with Prime.

Hmmm . . . .

So what do we know for sure?

1. You might have already been paid for those books sold in the buy box.

The third-party vendors might have purchased them at a discount from a number of legitimate sources. If that’s the case, you have been credited with the appropriate royalty.

2. You might not make any money from those books sold in the buy box.

If some of the new books available from outside vendors were review copies, for example, you won’t be paid for them.

3. You should encourage all book buyers — not just your readers — to look for the “Prime/Sold by Amazon.com” purchase option.

This is the only way they can be certain that the book they’re buying is new. And, it’s the only way you’ll be certain that you’ll earn royalties from sales.

Think about it: If you’ve already been paid for the book sold in the buy box — or you’re not going to be paid because of the way the vendor acquired it — you’re not going to make any more money on buy box books. To continue to earn royalties, you need people to buy directly from the publisher, whether that’s a big-name outfit like St. Martin’s Press or your own imprint.

The more people know to look for and buy from the “Prime/Sold by Amazon.com” purchase option, the more money you’ll make on Amazon.

4. Some people will always buy the lowest price product.

They don’t care if the book is new, like new, or used. They just want the lowest price.

Those buyers hunted for the best price before this buy box change made it easier for them to find it. You’ll never escape that.

5. As individuals, self-published authors have no clout with Amazon.

A common reaction among self-published authors to this and other Amazon practices they consider frustrating is, “This isn’t fair! We need to change this!”

Good luck with that.

Large publishers might be successful winning back the buy button through negotiation or the natural flow of things, but individuals won’t get anywhere protesting. Amazon is in business to make money, not keep self-published authors happy.

6. If you offer printed books on Amazon, use CreateSpace to publish them.

As reported by this article on the Independent Book Publishers of America site, “Amazon suggests that one of the ways you can win the Buy Box is to keep books ‘in stock.’ ”

That could be code for “print with CreateSpace.”

We’ve long known from anecdotal information that Amazon seems to give preference to print-on-demand — POD — books printed through CreateSpace. Those books aren’t plagued by “out of stock” messages that you see for books that are mysteriously in stock but not showing up that way on the site. (For more on this strategy, read “Why you need both CreateSpace and IngramSpark” on this site.)

Where does this leave you?

This change is not, as some have suggested, a reason to pull your printed book from Amazon. That site sells most books purchased online, so leaving it would hurt you and your book, not Amazon.

But it is a reason to make sure it’s available at other online retailers, including Barnes & Noble and IndieBound.com.

Is it frustrating? Yes. Should you lose sleep over it? No.

Put your energy into writing and packaging the best book possible. That’s the only piece of this that you can control.

What’s happening with your print book buy box on Amazon? Please tell us in a comment. 

Whether you sell print or e-books on Amazon, be sure to make the most of your sales page on that site, Learn how to do it in our affordable video training program, “How to Sell More Book on Amazon.”