FREE/BARGAIN — Romance & Discussion

[library addict]

Weekly Report:

Read:

• Star Cruise: Lucky Charm (Sectors #19.5) by Veronica Scott (B/4 stars)
• Deadly Strain (Biological Response Team #1) by Julie Rowe (B-/3 stars)
• Lethal Game (Biological Response Team #2) by Julie Rowe (C/2 stars)
• Viral Justice (Biological Response Team #3) by Julie Rowe (C/2 stars)

Purchased:

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by library addict

Authors have said in the past that preorder numbers do help them.

Which authors?
Paper or ebook?
Trad or SP?

What definitely helps authors is sales and secondly good reviews. Or non-negative* controversy / exposure on mainstream media.

[* Well publicised school / library bans or rants from politicians (or tabloids) likely helps far more than any other publicity. I can't see how pre-orders help except to encourage trad publishers to do more promotion or a bigger paper print run, and they'd need to be big numbers.]

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Which authors?
Paper or ebook?
Trad or SP?

What definitely helps authors is sales and secondly good reviews. Or non-negative* controversy / exposure on mainstream media.

[* Well publicised school / library bans or rants from politicians (or tabloids) likely helps far more than any other publicity. I can't see how pre-orders help except to encourage trad publishers to do more promotion or a bigger paper print run, and they'd need to be big numbers.]

Pre-orders help to traditionally published authors, as the publisher look at the initial figures to decide if continuing the series.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Which authors?
Paper or ebook?
Trad or SP?

What definitely helps authors is sales and secondly good reviews. Or non-negative* controversy / exposure on mainstream media.

[* Well publicised school / library bans or rants from politicians (or tabloids) likely helps far more than any other publicity. I can't see how pre-orders help except to encourage trad publishers to do more promotion or a bigger paper print run, and they'd need to be big numbers.]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Pre-orders help to traditionally published authors, as the publisher look at the initial figures to decide if continuing the series.

This. Pre-orders also help determine the size of print-runs and play a factor when it comes time to negotiate a new publishing contract even if for a different trilogy or series or stand-alone. It also can factor significantly on if the publishing house puts an effort into advertising or not.

But I have also heard indie/self-published authors talk about how pre-orders count as release day sales so help boost their rankings at the various storefronts.

I don't think it matters so much with Amazon as they factor daily sales, but I could be misremembering. But for authors who sell on Kobo, Apple Books, B&N, etc it makes a difference. They can be offered opportunities to be featured in the storefront's newsletters and/or on the landing page(s), etc. Which in turn helps with visibility and more sales.

[Quoth]

Pre-orders of ebooks are release day sales.

I think it's only significant for traditional publishers on paper.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Pre-orders of ebooks are release day sales.

I think it's only significant for traditional publishers on paper.

Perhaps, but it's a market that exists, and authors have to take it into account. Dismiss it because we only read ebooks or because we don't purchase from traditional publishers, I think it doesn't make a lot of sense.

And about release day sales... I don't really know as price is charged when you pre-order, not release day (at least at Kobo).

[Quoth]

I mean a pre-order is only an actual sale on release day. You aren't charged till then. Generally applies to paper books too, even in a physical bookshop, though I suppose some bookshops might charge a deposit. Online sellers don't charge a deposit. I wasn't writing about a "sale" in the sense of discounts.

Kobo UK or Ireland on page for an ebook not yet released

Pre-order Price Guarantee ^
You'll only pay for the pre-order when it becomes available. If the publisher's price changes between your order date and the item's release, you'll pay the lowest possible price.

So unless the "sale price" change is after release?


I wasn't dismissing it. I was asking clarification in my original question. Pre-sale orders really only matter for traditional print runs. Even then, the effect has to be marginal, because even if pre-sale orders didn't exist (in sense of not possible anywhere) and the book was a success there would be another print run. So it's of importance to tradition publishers to gauge the size of print run and they still often get that wrong. Having been involved for authors and printing for over 30 years I'm sceptical that it of much importance to actual authors, except to give an idea of how it might go, but if pre-orders didn't exist the first week's sales would tell the author how well the book is doing. So the significance is for traditional publishers planning the print run, unless it somehow becomes a media sensation before release, which is very very rare without a lot of money and PR pumped somewhere, unless it's a movie/TV/game/viral social media video tie-in, or a court case, or President Trump suing the publisher.