Many authors I work with are unaware that self-published authors can do pre-orders for their books. Yes! You too can take advantage of offering pre-orders to boost your book sales and I highly recommend that you do. Below, I’ll explain why they’re beneficial and how indie authors can do pre-orders so you don’t miss out on the benefits of this author marketing strategy.
How Do Pre-Orders Help Book Sales for Self-Published Authors?
Now that you know that indie authors can do pre-orders too, you’re probably wondering if they’re worth the effort. I think they are. There really isn’t too much effort involved, as I’ll explain below, and there are a lot of pros to setting up pre-order options. But there are also some important things to know beforehand.
Not only do pre-orders allow you to build buzz for your upcoming book, but they can enable a profit surplus that you can then turn around and add to your marketing budget.
Also, when using Amazon, pre-orders let the platform know there is interest in your book! This can affect the algorithm, signaling that your book should be made more visible.
In some cases (depending on your three chosen categories), you only need to sell ten books to be number one in a category. This flags your book as a #1 New Release Bestseller, which tips the algorithms in your favor. Amazon is going to show results of its most popular titles when people search for a book like yours, so being number one, if even for a day, matters.
Unfortunately, unlike other book-selling and distribution platforms, Amazon counts sales on the day of the order, so those pre-order sales are not counted as launch-day sales. But that’s okay. It’s just something to be aware of if you’re hoping to be a number-one bestseller on launch day.
Self-Published Authors Can Do Pre-Orders to Help Sell Their Other Books!
Another thing to consider—if your book is part of a series, I recommend that you set up links on your website prompting readers to pre-order your latest so they don’t miss out. Take advantage of the buzz your latest book is getting by promoting( or even discounting) your previous titles.
Pre-order links can also be shared on your blog and/or newsletter and across your social platforms! The benefit here is that you are capturing interest in real-time as opposed to hoping that people remember to buy it on the sale date. Take advantage of their interest in real-time and make it possible for people to buy now.
Okay, So Self-Published Authors Can Do Pre-Orders? But How?
Making your book available for pre-order isn’t difficult, there are just some things you need to be aware of. You probably already know that traditional publishers use them as a big part of their marketing strategy and there are reasons for that, as I mentioned above. And since self-published authors can do pre-orders too, despite what you may assume, you’d be smart to take advantage of this option.
Some Things to Note About Pre-Orders
Yes, self-published authors can do pre-orders, but it’s not just a set-it-and-forget-it type of strategy. Setting up pre-orders takes planning. Meaning, you have to have a set launch date, and your book needs to be publish-ready. See more on that below.
There are also things to consider, such as not everyone wants to wait for a book when they order it. They want that instant gratification. But that doesn’t mean you should discount all the people who want to get your book as fast as possible. And when they do a pre-order it will automatically be shipped to them on your launch day!
Also, be prepared to keep that momentum going with your pre-order promotions!
Self-Published Authors Can Do Pre-Orders for Both Print and Digital
Did you know that self-published authors can do pre-orders for print books as well as digital? It would be wise to choose both if you plan on publishing a print book and an eBook. Please note that KDP has recently added the option of making ebooks available for pre-sale, but they still don’t allow pre-orders for self-published print books. We’re waiting for this to change.
It should be noted that there is an on-sale date and a publication date and these are different, but I recommend you choose the same date for both. Your publication date is when your book is born! The on-sale date is the official date that retailers are allowed to sell your book to the public. This levels the playing field for smaller boutique bookstores that might get their shipments later than big box stores. If everyone sells the book on the same date, there is no unfair advantage for the bigger stores.
Whether you choose to pre-sell your print book only, or both your print and ebook, your book needs to be ready to go on your on-sale day. Different retailers and aggregators will have varying dates on when they will start selling your books. For instance, Ingram starts the printing and distribution process ten days before your on-sale date. And you don’t want that to happen if your book files have any mistakes.
It’s also important to have a clear sales and marketing strategy when setting up pre-orders. You want to give your book at least a month to begin collecting those pre-orders, or it kind of defeats the purpose.
Setting Up eBook Pre-Orders with an Aggregator
Book aggregators ensure indie authors can do pre-orders by allowing them to upload their ebook files and add metadata and the other important stuff needed to make it publishable. Smashwords, Draft2Digital, PublishDrive and Ingram Spark all offer pre-order options. So, by using these, self-published authors can do pre-orders pretty easily.
Also, and this is a side note—I recommend that you publish your book through an aggregator like IngramSpark and KDP. The key here is that all Amazon sales will come directly from KDP (and you’ll make more money) and all other booksellers will get their books through Ingram wholesale (via IngramSpark). Your local bookseller is never going to buy books from Amazon.
So if you want your book available to retailers, you need a company like IngramSpark or BookBaby. I won’t say more on that unless someone asks me to write an article on this topic, in which case, stay tuned!
Some More on How Pre-Orders Work for Self-Published Authors
Back to pre-orders. A pre-order requires that your on-sale date is the same as your publication date. This is set up when you upload your book files and complete the processes required to publish your ebook on the aforementioned platforms.
Just as with distribution, I recommend IngramSpark because they are the one leading aggregator that can also set up pre-orders for you print books and they cover the distribution to Ingram wholesale as well. Ingram will also start the printing and distribution process ten days before your on-sale date, as I mentioned.
The Steps to Make Your Print Book Available for Pre-Order Using IngramSpark:
- Once your book is ready for prime-time and is print-ready (meaning, there are no errors) you will be ready to upload your files to IngramSpark.
- Establish your future pub date (remember to choose the same date for your on-sale and your pub date, which is hopefully at least 30 days in the future).
- Enable distribution.
It’s that simple. Enabling your book for distribution will add your title (in all the formats you’ve chosen) to Ingram’s wholesale catalog. This means that all booksellers who have access to Ingram will be able to pre-order your book!
Then, those online reseller systems, like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, and Powell’s (just to name a few) will be triggered to reveal your book as a pre-sale title. This is automated because they want the pre-sale for all books—they don’t pick and choose. Though sometimes the data may feed in slowly.
Again, make sure your files are final! Once those files are released, it takes time (sometimes weeks) for replacement files to finally appear on places like Barnes & Noble.
More Important Stuff About Amazon!
For this to work, you cannot make your book available to KDP. At Monkey C Media, we always set up the title on KDP but we leave it in draft form until a week before the pub date, at which time we then hit Publish and release the book for sale. We do this early to allow for the time needed to get the title through KDP’s review system. It usually becomes available for sale within three to five business days.
This means that your book could be available for sale on Amazon before your pub date—and that’s okay! Amazon will then begin fulfilling all those pre-orders through its print-on-demand (POD) system.
That’s it. Self-published authors can do pre-orders and I recommend that you do!
Have you had personal experience pre-selling your book? I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Until next time. Thanks for reading!
If you want a step-by-step on how self-published authors can do pre-orders, here is a tutorial video!
