i pre-ordered the 21 nights book in may b/c i could get it for a discount and i just got an email from amazon saying the release date has changed and it won't be shipped until around october 10th!

That's weird, I just pre-ordered 21 Nights about a half-hour ago and I didn't get that. It said September 23rd.

purplecam said:

did you get it for $31.50 or the full $50.00?

Yes me 2, October 10 - 23, I´ll recieve it, I hope so

beener04 said:

I got it for $31.50

There's a thread about it here:
http://prince.org/msg/7/276429

What is going on with Prince?

Jochem said:

oops sorry

I'm not surprised, did you get an email saying that the price went from $31.50 to $36.50? I did, What's going on with him?
[Edited 7/16/08 15:07pm]

Dayclear said:

no luckily. mine stayed at $31.50. sorry

My new date is 9/26-9/30.

Well I cancelled mine once and then went and put it back in my cart. By bnext year this time it will probably be in the $5.00 book cart at K-mart anyway!
I love Prince but he's not making any friends here lately.
[Edited 7/16/08 15:10pm]

How the publising world works.

Once a contract is signed, a price negotiated for a hardcopy release (usually all table books are $50), and a release date set, the only way the date will change is if the author (Prince) and the publishing company (Atria/Simon and Schuster) decide to change words, pictures, etc.

Publishing houses sell books wholesale to retailers (e.g., Amazon, Borders, Target, Wal-Mart) for $25 per unit/book, and instruct these retailers to sell the book for $50 so they can make a profit. However, retailers know consumers are not going to pay $50 so they offer discounts to get prepaid orders. Based on how many prepaid orders are received, the retailers request more units from the publishing company to house in their online warehouses and physical stores. During the first week of a newly published book there are 20%- 40% off markers on the suggested retail price so stores can move the product as quickly as possible.

Prince and the publishing house, Atria get their money from the $25 wholesale price. More than likely, Prince will get 15% for the first 15,000 units sold and his percentage of the contract will increase to 35% after 100,000 units are sold. If 500,000 units sell, Prince can make something close to $8,000,000.00 USD.

So, please people, don't blame Prince for your discount increase, that's solely at the discretion of the retailer.

Thanks for the heads up. If I hadn't seen this post I wouldn't have checked my email. Amazon gave me a mid-August deadline date to approve the delay date. I approved it and should be receiving mine on 9/26, (on my son's birthday at that). The price didn't change for me from the original order. I still have it at $31.50 (not including shipping/handling charges) which came to about $38 and some change.
[Edited 7/16/08 16:26pm]

I got that same email too but mine is still only $31.50. Oh well, as long as it gets here. I'm very patient. I bought Prince: The Glory Years-A Documentary DVD & Prince-The Hits Collection DVD to tide me over until October.