Almost every book campaign these days seems to start with a pre-order. It's interesting because there is actually very little information for authors when it comes to running pre-order campaigns. When can you start? How many should you anticipate? Do they even work?
I'm no expert (see all of one book I have published), but I did run a physical pre-order campaign. Today, I thought I'd share a bit of what I learned through the process and talk a bit about my overall thoughts.
I'd like to start with the purpose. For one, pre-order campaigns seem to be generally more useful for traditionally published authors or hybrid authors. With trad/indie publishing, pre-order campaigns can elucidate the interest for said book, and it can tell your publisher how many copies they should anticipate printing for each run. ("Run" here meaning the number of books printed at a time. "First run" would be the number of books printed the first time, which could be anywhere from 100-100,000 or more.)
While this information can be useful as an self-publishing author, there are so many options these days for Print on Demand that print runs are becoming less common. We don't necessarily need to know how many books we'll sell if we're not keeping extended stock or shipping to bookstores. But it can help if you plan to keep a stock of signed or special copies.
So, right out the gate, pre-orders for self-publishers become a bit less viable.
My method
I had to take a bit of an unconventional approach with pre-orders because there are very few ways to do print pre-orders as a self-publishing author.
While there are many opinions about the merits of Ingram Spark, one of the benefits is that you can order as many author copies as you want prior to release day. These author copies are not watermarked as such (like Amazon's are), and they are the actual version that will go on shelves on release day.
I uploaded all my final files to Ingram about 6-8 weeks prior to release and ordered a short run of author copies to use as my pre-order copies. While I didn't technically need to have the stock while pre-orders were open, it made me uncomfortable to be charging for a product I didn't yet have in my hands.
Because I run my website through Wix, I have the option for a virtual storefront and integrated shipping functions. The downside is that, once a shipping label is purchased, it must be used within 30 days (because of the fluctuation of shipping costs over time). That meant that, while I could do everything through my website, if I wasn't covering the shipping myself, I could only open physical pre-orders a month before release.
That is what I ended up doing, and it worked out fine in the end.
Once it was time to ship pre-orders out, I downloaded shipping labels, hand-packaged each book and character art, and dropped them at the post office myself.
Could I have covered shipping myself and started earlier? Technically, yes. But the cost of shipping is so high these days that I would have been paying $5-10 CAD per book every time a reader purchased. In essence, I would have operated at a loss for every pre-order sold.
That just wasn't in the financial cards at the time.
What I offered
In my pre-orders, I ended up printing three art pieces. One of the female main character, one of the male main character, and one of the setting. I printed these as post cards through Canva for about $140 CAD. On the back of the setting art, I also printed my logo and left space to write a personalized "thank you" message for each individual pre-order.
I then signed and personalized paperback copies. I also emailed out an eBook copy on release day to everyone who had pre-ordered, so they could tandem read the book with a friend.
Other methods
If you're reading this and you're interested in doing something similar, I've heard that Etsy can be a good option as a virtual storefront. Just be cautious about fees. Etsy charges to offer products, so you may get dinged on costs that way.
I've also heard of collecting information via Google Forms up to a year in advance, so that when your pre-order is ready, you can send a single email blast letting those interested readers know.
Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can also run physical pre-orders through specific bookstores. I think it's pretty hard to make connections with indie bookstores these days, but if you already have a relationship with them, they may help you out that way.
Amazon does offer eBook pre-orders as soon as your final files are uploaded. Though I have heard that readers aren't a huge fan of eBook pre-orders alone (as they can just order once the book is available). In addition, Amazon eBook pre-order campaigns can hurt in the long run. Amazon has a specific book ranking system based on sales, and if you're getting trickle orders with pre-orders, it can lower your overall sales ranking. Instead, it may be better to wait to list until closer to release. That way, your sales peak in a shorter time frame, making it more likely for your book to end up on Amazon sales lists and further your marketing reach.
Was it worth it?
In my opinion, kind of.
What I walked away with was that pre-order campaigns take a lot of effort on the marketing front to make it truly worth the effort.
There is very little you can offer readers that would make them purchase your book as a pre-order if they weren't already intending to buy upon release (without spending an arm and a leg, that is).
What I've heard from reader surveys is that they enjoy the following in a pre-order:
Character art
Signed/personalized copies of your book
Bookmarks
Sprayed edges or specialty copies
Other general swag
Very few said they would purchase because of other inclusions. Do with that what you will.
I think I ended up with close to 30 pre-orders. Most of those were from people I knew.
In the end, I think I would rather invest in quality writing and getting those books out faster than taking a lot of time for a pre-order campaign. But maybe I'm in the minority there.
What's your take on pre-orders? Whether reader or writer.
Happy writing,
Erin