Writer's Grove

Why Preorders Are Gold

You may have noticed that authors really, really like it when you preorder. I’m no exception: If you offered me either a preorder or a taco, I’d have to apologize to the taco, tell it that it did nothing wrong because it’s perfect, and still take the preorder. Why are they so spiffy? An attempt to explain, perhaps not exhaustive but hopefully not exhausting:

Preorders are the ultimate indicator of buzz, because if folks are willing to put money down in advance, well, that talks much louder than someone saying in a social media post that they’re looking forward to reading it (though that’s great too). And if bookstores and the publisher see buzz surrounding a certain title, then things start happening that might not have happened otherwise. What things? Well…

•An indie bookstore with limited shelf space might decide to stock copies of a book they weren’t going to stock before. Let’s say our fictional bookstore, Taco Bout Books, can bring in ten new titles on a release week—they probably have to get rid of ten titles too—but dang, there are probably seventy, eighty, even five hundred new titles to choose from. Which ones are they going to pick? Well, if they have preorders for your book, it’s more likely they’ll pick yours. They might even make a stack on a front table and face it out so people can find it easily. And if they have copies available in store, then the chances of people discovering your book increase dramatically. Because they can’t discover you if the store isn’t stocking your book. So preorders can ultimately increase visibility and distribution, which can lead to more sales.

•A preorder is a guaranteed first-week sale, which is the most important week in a book’s life cycle. It’s the week you’re most likely to hit a list, for one thing, and hitting those lists help authors write more books later. But even if they don’t hit a list, that first week’s sales get a hard look by publishers when it’s time to decide on future contracts. So every first-week sale is important downstream. To be clear, I’m grateful and happy whenever folks buy a book! But first-week sales are the most helpful career-wise, so writers understandably dig preorders for that reason.

•Sometimes a publisher might look at preorder numbers, see they’re kinda strong, and throw some extra marketing resources at a title to see if they can juice it up a bit more. Those resources can manifest in different ways, but the key is that this extra juice happens solely because of preorders. Authors love extra juice. Sometimes they like it in a box or pouch with a straw, sometimes mixed with gin, and sometimes in marketing dollars.

•Digital platforms have to decide which books to put on their front page, and front-page visibility helps a lot, as you might imagine. And they’re going to pick the buzzy books. Strong preorders mean buzz. Even if a digital retailer is being paid by a publisher for front-page visibility, what’s the publisher pushing? Buzzy books. This is true in ebook and audio too. So your preorders in those formats help as well!

All of which is to say, preorders are the One Weird Trick to make sure you get to write more books. That’s why you hear writers talk about them a lot, offer special deals for swag, and so on. For example, if you preorder A Curse of Krakens from any store in any format and upload your confirmation or receipt to the form at this link, you’ll get a free short story in the Seven Kennings universe called “A Whisper of Snakes.” I’ve done fun little pins in the past, bookmarks, doohickeys, cursed garden gnomes—you have to try stuff. People are digging the story, though—it features Abhi, Murr, and Eep.

If you’d like to preorder a signed copy, please order from any of the following indie stores and specify you want it signed either in special instructions online or by saying so over the phone. I’ll sign it the day I visit the store and they’ll ship to you wherever you are.

Old Firehouse Books, Ft Collins, CO (970) 484-7898
Tattered Cover, CO Springs (719) 602-5300
The Poisoned Pen, Scottsdale, AZ (480) 947-2974
Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, CA (619) 539-7137
Schuler Books, Okemos, MI (517) 349-8840
Bakka Phoenix, Toronto, ON (416) 963-9993
Perfect Books, Ottawa, ON (613) 231 6468

And of course I hope you’ll come see me on tour if you can! Thanks for reading whenever you read. You deserve a taco.