Thursday, June 02, 2016

Pre-orders on Smashwords and Amazon

Some of you may wonder what the hype is all about with Pre-orders. 

To put it simply. It's one of the best marketing tools an author has. 

Smashwords - you can list a pre-order up to one year in advance. Then market the hell out of it. One out of eight books on Smashwords is a pre-order and these books do far better in sales than the others.

With Smashwords you don't need to have even written the book. All you need is the basic metadata: title, description, price and categorization. 

On Amazon you can list a pre-order up to up to 90 days prior to the book's launch. On Amazon you need to upload a draft version of your book that is similar to the final version but may need more editing and proofreading. 

Amazon - You can upload a draft version of your cover and update both the cover and interior no less than 10 days prior to launch date. 

Amazon doesn't credit your accumulated pre-orders toward your first day's sales rank. But you already have a sales rank with pre-orders which is a head start on any other book launches on said day.

What you can do when you have listed a pre-order on your retailer of choice: 

  1. Share direct hyperlinks to your book on social media. 
  2. List your pre-order in your existing e-books.
  3. Run price promotions on your other e-books  so you can drive more  readers to your pre-order. 
  4. Organize a marketing campaign to create a buzz around your launch.
  5. Offer your pre-order at a lower price before launch date. Urge consumers to buy now before the launch date when the price will go up.
All the best with your launch.





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