Preselling books is a marketing strategy that’s a must. While you wait for your books to be printed, it is ideal to maximize time for marketing and promotion. The presale period is so important, in fact, it should be the centerpiece of your book’s marketing and promotional campaign. So, what is a presale? Technically speaking, your presale period is the expanse of time between the moment you turn your book over to retailers to when it’s actually available to be shipped to readers. Presales can help capture early buzz in the book world. Read on to learn more about why authors should do presales.
1. The longer your book is available for preorder, the more planning you can do to launch simultaneous marketing strategies. Sending all of your customers to purchase your book on Amazon will not only increase sales but will show them as verified buyers when they write a review.
2. All of the preorders count as sales on the day your book is released. Having a large number of books sold in one day will affect your ranking and potentially give your book a “best new release” badge displayed on your Amazon product page.
3. Preorders also count toward first week sales, which often determine whether a book winds up on a bestselling list.
4. The more visitors to your page during this time, the more Amazon’s analytics will track activity, including connecting your book to other similar and even higher ranked books.
5. Strong preorders will lead to immediate reviews. Reviews will lead to more sales. Getting quality reviews on your product page as soon as possible will give your book a jump start.
6. Preorders also affect what happens behind the scenes. A large number of preorders can cause a vendor to go back to the publisher and ask for another order of books.
At the end of the day, it’s never a good idea to neglect presales or otherwise rush the release of your book. Quite simply, you need to build a presale strategy into your book release timeline. Doing so will help you ensure you are employing a best-to-market strategy––which is far more important than a first-to-market strategy.
Need help promoting your book during your presale period? Lucid Books not only assists with writing, editing, and publishing your book, but we can assist with marketing your book too. Learn more about our author marketing services.
