Three Reasons Why You Should Pre-order a Book
Here are three reasons why you should go ahead and pre-order that book.
I tend to wait until the last minute for things.
Need a hotel room? I can book the night before or even the day of, right?
Need to start working out? Sure! I can figure out an exercise plan in the morning.
A book looks interesting? I’ll put it in the online shopping cart and get it…at some point.
Obviously, waiting until the last minute is not usually a best practice. That’s especially true when it comes to ordering books. If at all possible, you should pre-order a book. Here are three reasons why you should pre-order a book whenever possible.
Pre-orders Increase the visibility of the book
There are hundreds of thousands of books for sale right now. How can a single book possibly garner the attention it deserves?
Pre-ordering a book increases the visibility of the book. It boosts the rankings at online outlets. It will come up in “Suggested For You” and “Others Also Bought” types of notifications.
The publishing industry also tracks pre-orders. If there’s a lot of traffic before the book releases, it signals potential retailers that there is demand for the book and they should stock it in their stores.
These pre-orders are especially important for first time authors or those who are self-publishing. The pre-order buzz will boost the visibility of those who otherwise would struggle to compete with big marketing campaigns that more established authors have.
Pre-orders emphasize the importance of books written by under-represented authors
Publishing is business…big business. Regardless of the quality or the content of the book, most publishers are playing a numbers game.
How many people does this author attract to their platform? Will this book sell? How much money can the publisher make?
Unfortunately, books by authors from under-represented groups (especially Black people and other people of color) do not often get the same kind of attention as others.
This is partially due to the subject matter. Authors writing about racism, gender, or ethnic groups are deemed “controversial” or “too niche”. Consequently, they don’t attract the type of attention from publishers that others get.
Pre-order sales let publishers know that there is a market for this type of content and a demand for authors who are more representative of our current multi-racial, multi-ethnic world.
Pre-orders are the first and best chance to make bestseller lists
Of course, it always helps if an author can say their book has made a best seller list. These lists are somewhat arbitrary and do not indicate the quality of a book. Still, it’s something people accept as a measure of legitimacy and these lists do tell us something of the popular demand for the book.
Most bestseller lists are issued weekly based on 7-day sales performance numbers. Pre-order count toward the first week of sales for a book. So in that first week when a book comes out, sales are generally the strongest because the pre-order numbers get included in the initial 7-day sales numbers.
A strong pre-order showing offers an author’s first and best chance to get on a major bestseller list.
So go ahead and pre-order that book!
P.S. Today (January 4, 2021) is the last day to PRE-ORDER my next book How to Fight Racism. ;-)
If you want to learn more about the book and also get other tips on how to support an author check out this podcast episode and infographic below.