Tip of the Week – Preorders

Welcome to Tip of the Week! The goal here is to just provide tips and tricks and everything in between about helping authors. They will be super short posts, but hopefully help you out!

Last week as part of the prayers for authors, I mentioned preorders. Today I want to encourage you to preoder and share about preorders as often as you can!

Why Should We Preorder a Book

Often on social media, or in author newsletters, you see them encourage readers to preorder their book. Let me start by saying that preordering a book can have benefits to both the reader and the author. Let’s look at both:

Benefit to the Reader:

• Some authors will offer a preorder incentive. This could be a free bookplate, bookmark, coloring pages, or other fun bookish items.
• Sometimes publishers (and Amazon) will send out preorders prior to release date. This means you don’t have to wait!
• Even if it comes on release day itself, you still don’t have to wait 😉
• A lot of authors and publishers will offer a discount if you preorder a book. One of my favorites – Baker Book House – often does 40% off with free shipping when you preorder directly from their store. Um, it doesn’t get any better then that.
• Preordering a book tells the author you are excited for it. If that’s not a way to encourage them, I don’t know what is!
• Sometimes the first round of printing sells out. If you preorder a book, you’re guaranteed to get a copy.
• When publishers see how well preorder sales go, and sales in general, they are more apt to provide future book contracts to the author. That means more books for us in the future!

Benefit to the Author:

• They get encouragement from so many people are looking forward to reading their book.
• The more preorders an author gets, the more online sales team take notice. This encourages them to publicize the book more, thus attracting new readers, and hopefully more sales. A benefit to the sales company, publishers, and authors.
• Authors don’t get paid much, so every sale is a big help to them!
• When publishers see how well preorder sales go, and sales in general, they are more apt to provide future book contracts to the author.
• Sometimes online media outlets see how well they are doing, and want to advertise or get their hands on the book as well. Then they will share about the book with their followers. Just think of all the publicity Colleen Hoover gets – and she just talked about her books on TikTok in the beginning.
• The preorder incentives can allow the author to use their creative side in a fun way.

I’m sure there is more, and if you’re an author reading this please share in the comments! But basically friends, preorders are a big deal. So do me a favor. Preorder from your favorite authors when finances allow. And share about preorders on your social media so your friends will want to do the same!

Do you preorder books? What makes you want to preorder a book?