Should You do a Presale for Your Book Launch?

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Transcript:

 Pre-selling your book. Okay. So I get this question a lot from authors. And honestly, it's a topic that I've had to kind of do some different research around myself to see, you know, what works, what doesn't, what scenarios could it work in? What scenarios does it not work in and all of that. And so over the years, I've learned a lot when it comes to pre selling a book and offering it up for pre sale.

It's not, it's not a cut and dry answer. So if you talk to someone who comes from a more traditional, book publishing background where they worked for a traditional publisher or a hybrid publisher, they are probably gonna have you do a pre sell of your book. Um, they're gonna, they're probably gonna push that and you know, it's, it's not a bad thing, but people from those backgrounds traditionally are not necessarily thinking about the way that Amazon works for, um, for going after bestseller and some of those, those metrics that a lot of authors care about, and they're also not necessarily thinking about it from a marketing standpoint, which is a little ironic because a lot of publishers.

You know, that's what people traditionally, like, they think that the publisher is going to help them with all this marketing expertise. But they're not marketers. They're publishers. They know how to get your book live. Okay? They know the ins and outs of this traditional industry. They're not always thinking about things from a marketing standpoint.

And there's a phrase I believe Donald Miller uses a lot in his podcast around the story brand. And it's, uh, if you confuse, you lose. And so I see this way too often, especially when it comes to a pre sale for a book, is that it becomes confusing for the audience. They don't really know when your book is live.

You're talking about your book a lot, but unless you are crystal clear about the actual date that the book is live, people are going to be confused. Because you've been talking about it for months and months and months, and then if you're not explicitly clear that your book actually went live, Then you don't really you confuse your audience and also a lot of authors that go this route They will pop up out of nowhere to say that their book is available for pre sale And so there's no lead up.

So all of a sudden this this author comes on the scene sending to their email list Or sending you a private message or posting on social media that their book is available for presale. But if they haven't done any lead up, any marketing or communications about the book before it's ready for presale, you're really confusing people because they're like, well, wait.

I didn't know you had a book. I've got to, I've got to work on it. Like, I've got to wrap this around in my mind of what to do with this now. And so a lot of people aren't ready to take action just because you've said your book is available for pre sale. And also, it gives people this mindset of like, oh, well, it's available for pre sale.

I've got plenty of time to buy this book. The problem is... With any of these like online platforms, if you want to rank well, you need to get a big search of activity in a concentrated amount of time. And so by offering your book as a pre sale, you are spreading out the time that that activity is actually happening.

Which, you know, if you're, if you don't care about getting any sort of fun accolades, don't worry about it. Offer your book up for pre sale, make it available and all that stuff. However, if you really want to make a splash, you need to start building up that lead up. So when people tell me they want to do offer their book for presale if they want to go after any sort of big Metrics or really move the needle in the algorithm, especially on Amazon.

I will tell people okay, that's fine but the date that you put your book available for presale is Technically your launch date now people can't get the book in hand But that's the date that you really want to push people to buy your book. And, but the mentality that the public has, the mentality that the consumer has is that, Oh, pre sale.

Well, I have this window now from whenever they announce pre sale to my launch or to the launch date. That that is like the window, like, Oh, I can get this book anytime. There's no urgency of like, I need to do this now. And so, It just kind of plays with people's minds of like they think that they have plenty of time.

Instead, I, I encourage people to focus just on the public launch date. And all of your marketing and communications can be pushing people to that one specific date. You focus your efforts and you focus your audience's attention. On that one sole spot. And so all of your social media content, all of your marketing is building up hype to whatever day you are working towards.

And so, when your book is available, you are pushing all of your activity around people selling or buying your book on that one day. Or around that one time frame, around launch day. You aren't spreading out the activity. And you're still maximizing all of the conversations. about promoting your book leading up to that.

From a marketing standpoint, I think you're actually in a better position because again, you confuse, you lose. So in this point, you're pointing people to one date. You're not telling people you have this huge ambiguous window of time that they can purchase your book in. I also like to concentrate my efforts because as an author you have a lot going on.

And so this is a way to simplify your efforts. You don't necessarily have to be pushing people to buy your book for three to six to nine months straight in this pre sale window that other authors might normally do. And as a result, you actually start building people's interest because you're not selling.

And there's some sort of scarcity around, Oh, this book isn't available yet, but this teaser just dropped. Or I know the author interviewed this really famous person for their book. I can't wait to read what's in it. All of that kind of stuff is promoting your book. But you are concentrating the activity around it.

To your actual launch day. And the launch day can be very, you know, very subjective. Like, you can pick whatever your launch date needs to be. Um, but just concentrate your efforts. It will make your life a lot more easy as the author and as the project manager and owner, essentially, of this entire huge project where you, whether you like it or not, you are the face of your book's brand.

Okay, so it is your project. Let's just be very clear. You and your team can concentrate your effort. Okay, and it just makes things simpler for you, and it is simpler and more clear for your audience. So, it's a win win on both sides. Now, I get it. There are other instances where I have seen people really want to push for a pre sell.

Um, and there are reasons, if you are going after, Maybe some New York Times bestseller type lists or you're wanting to go for broader, broader accolades like that that you want to showcase that your book can perform at a certain level. Some of the, the book promotion websites want to see a certain amount of activity before they're willing to put you on for a new release type of promotion.

And so, you know, if those are some of your big goals, You might consider doing a pre sale. However, most of the authors that I work with typically have their book associated with some sort of other arm of business. So, they might have a coaching business and their book is a, an extension of that coaching business.

It is a tool to supplement the coaching that they do. It is almost a cold audience warm up so that someone is ready to work with them for coaching. Okay, so you can see that the book has a much larger financial goal in mind than just to purchase the e book or purchase the print book. The transaction of the book purchase is not the end goal.

So for them, the marketing strategy is actually so much more involved. Because it's not just about the book. It's about your whole brand. And the book is just part of that bigger conversation. So, that's typically why I am not a huge fan of doing a pre sale for your book. If you are looking at this purely from like purchasing books and transactions on that level, again, you might have a compelling argument from someone else who is maybe much smarter than I am from a different angle to say, yeah, a pre sale actually does make sense in this case.

But I would hope that you hear some of my warning signs from a few minutes ago, where I'm saying, you confuse, you lose. On the consumer side, I've been so confused by some authors books, because I don't know if their book is actually live. I don't know if I can actually purchase it and read the book within the same week.

Or am I going to have to wait? So I, it's one of those things where, you know, if you go the presale route, and again, as I started this, this is kind of a gray area question. You're going to get different opinions, but my hope is that you would take some of the warning signs of what you heard from me say and apply it.

So if you do decide to do a presale, you are thinking through, how am I going to be as crystal clear as possible? How am I going to make my launch? actual public day, just as important as when I talk about my presale day. And how am I going to build up hype to my book being available for pre order? All of those things are things that you need to think about.

And it just adds an extra project or level of complexity if you decide to add this other date in the mix. Again, it's, there's not always a right or wrong answer. It's just a matter of if you decide to go one route, you need to understand the implications of that. And you need to understand how you can be as clear as possible in the communication and marketing of your book.

Because remember, everyone gets millions of impressions throughout the day. Of advertisements, social media posts, emails hitting their inbox, billboards on their way home, flyers in their kids backpacks. There are so many different messages and things vying for our attention that you have to be crystal clear when it comes to promoting your book.

You have to pound it into people's head about what it is and what you're doing. You have to be crystal clear because otherwise people don't have the attention span to care about your book as much as you do. You have to be repetitious. You have to be clear. You have to be direct. And if you decide to do a pre sale for your book, you need to make sure that you are even more crystal clear.

Because that just adds another level of complexity for both you and your audience to understand about how your book is launching. So, is a pre sale for your book the right thing to do? Only you can answer that. You can get the information you need, and I hope that this podcast episode helped give you just a little bit of perspective around, Hey, maybe I need to consider XYZ if I'm going to start doing pre sale orders.

But, long term, like this decision is up to you, and it's got to work for your goals for your book. So, is a pre sale right for you? Only you can answer it. Curious to hear your thoughts. Shoot me a message. If you have decided to do a presale and it's gone well, um. What's something that you would do differently if you were to do it again?

I'm really curious to hear other perspectives because this is one of those issues that it feels like it's always kind of changing And it feels like there's a lot of different opinions out there So pre sale or not the reality is this is one of those decisions that should not trip you up we talk a lot about decision fatigue and You know just how indecision can really hinder you and paralyze you in the book marketing process and in the book launch process This is one of those decisions that you need to weigh the factors, make a decision, and move forward with confidence in that decision.

Move forward confidently and strategically so that your book launch can be as effective as possible.

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Access Author Craft Community, a resource library that grows every month with new resources and information for authors at an affordable price. https://tinterocreative.thrivecart.com/author-craft-community-for-writers/