# KDP Pre-orders are here!!! (MERGED)



## SA_Archer (Dec 20, 2013)

So I was just checking my stats on KP, and noticed that under 'reports' there is now a link to show pre-orders. Anyone know the scoop? Can we start listing pre-orders on Amazon now? And if so, how is that going to change your sales and marketing strategies in the future?

I am not really tech-savvy, but I am going to try and include the screenshot, but if it doesn't show up I'll also put the link to where I put it on photobucket.



That's the link to photobucket:
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l525/thesidhe/Pre-orders_zpse8188d38.jpg

Here's the text, in case it is hard to read:

"Pre-orders 
View Pre-order units for books you have released as Pre-orders (updated periodically as Pre-orders are recorded). These units will appear in your sales dashboard after book release"


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

Were you checking under author central or the KDP homepage?

Screenshot it. This might be like just before they announced KDP Countdown, it would show up on the homepage a few weeks in advance then they rolled it out.


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## tessblunt (Jan 29, 2014)

I see it too, YAY!

I've always wanted to try doing pre-orders for some books. I'm super jealous of the indies who worked out a deal with Amazon to be able to do pre-orders for their books. With enough lead-up promotion you can basically guarantee your book hits the overall Kindle Top 100 on release day. This should level the playing field a bit for the rest of us little guys.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Don't see it. Can you post a screenshot?


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## SA_Archer (Dec 20, 2013)

Wansit said:


> Were you checking under author central or the KDP homepage?
> 
> Screenshot it. This might be like just before they announced KDP Countdown, it would show up on the homepage a few weeks in advance then they rolled it out.


Good idea. I have added the screen shot to the original post.


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## tknite (Feb 18, 2014)

I have it on mine, too. I heard a rumor recently they were thinking about pre-orders for everyone -- looks like it's true. Cool. Maybe it'll be useful.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

SA_Archer said:


> Here's the text, in case it is hard to read:
> 
> "Pre-orders
> View Pre-order units for books you have released as Pre-orders (updated periodically as Pre-orders are recorded). These units will appear in your sales dashboard after book release"


This is so awesome!! Particularly because they give the option of viewing the number of pre-orders taken. From what I heard from other authors who have pre-orders, they can't tell how many pre-orders they have until the day of publication. Thanks for sharing S.A.


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

Pre-orders do not help your ranking the day you release. I had it once. Used it only that once when I realized how it actually killed my ranking on release day. 

Unless Amazon has changed it recently, your pre-order sales do not go toward your ranking on the day of release. Only the sales on the day of release will effect your ranking.


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## Deke (May 18, 2013)

Rank newbie question: what's a preorder?  Is this just a page in which folks can order a book before it's done?  Do you typically set a publication date so folks know when they'll be sent it?


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## Rich Amooi (Feb 14, 2014)

Hmmm. I'm publishing my debut novel in less than two weeks. I wonder if I should make it three to four weeks and start promoting pre-orders. Hmmm.


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## S.A. Mulraney (May 20, 2011)

This is awesome. I'm not seeing it yet, so it's probably rolling out... or it's a tease view like KU was a couple days before it went live. This is perfect timing for me. I have a launch coming in September.


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## Al Dente (Sep 3, 2012)

This is awesome. I don't have it listed in my dashboard yet, but if they approve this for everyone, it could really help with several projects I've been working on. This could be great for serials especially.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

romanceauthor said:


> Pre-orders do not help your ranking the day you release. I had it once. Used it only that once when I realized how it actually killed my ranking on release day.
> 
> Unless Amazon has changed it recently, your pre-order sales do not go toward your ranking on the day of release. Only the sales on the day of release will effect your ranking.


That's very true. It will cannibalize your pub day sales unless you're a big enough author to get pre-orders (and potential space on the USAT Bestsellers lists) AND get day of pub sales.



Deke said:


> Rank newbie question: what's a preorder? Is this just a page in which folks can order a book before it's done? Do you typically set a publication date so folks know when they'll be sent it?


Exactly that. I'm looking at the Amazon pre-order page and it says you have to put the FINAL document in 10 days before publication.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

romanceauthor said:


> Unless Amazon has changed it recently, your pre-order sales do not go toward your ranking on the day of release. Only the sales on the day of release will effect your ranking.


This is a relief for those who aren't likely to get a bazillion of pre-orders (which would shoot the book to the top of the lists immediately) but doesn't this make pre-orders sort of useless?

If rank isn't impacted, I'd rather have people put themselves on my mail list to get news as soon as a new title comes out.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Monique said:


> Don't see it. Can you post a screenshot?


I had to log out, and log back into see it - but it is there on the reports page!


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## SA_Archer (Dec 20, 2013)

romanceauthor said:


> Pre-orders do not help your ranking the day you release. I had it once. Used it only that once when I realized how it actually killed my ranking on release day.
> 
> Unless Amazon has changed it recently, your pre-order sales do not go toward your ranking on the day of release. Only the sales on the day of release will effect your ranking.


Beyond the sale rank issue, which probably won't affect me one way or the other because I'm microscope in the Amazon ocean anyway, I like the idea of drawing readers who reach the latest book in the series to pre-order the next one while they are excited. If I release only once every few months, they might forget about me by the next book. But if they've pre-ordered and the book shows up on their Kindle, it'll be a fabulous reminder that they were excited about the series, and they don't even have to do anything else (like click a link in an email, make a purchase, ect) to get it.

If we can always have the next book ready to go as pre-order in the back we can keep readers rolling along with the series, instead of losing them between releases.



Wansit said:


> This is so awesome!! Particularly because they give the option of viewing the number of pre-orders taken. From what I heard from other authors who have pre-orders, they can't tell how many pre-orders they have until the day of publication. Thanks for sharing S.A.


I was excited to be able to break the news!  Everyone here has helped me so much.


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## Rich Amooi (Feb 14, 2014)

Quiss said:


> This is a relief for those who aren't likely to get a bazillion of pre-orders (which would shoot the book to the top of the lists immediately) but doesn't this make pre-orders sort of useless?
> 
> If rank isn't impacted, I'd rather have people put themselves on my mail list to get news as soon as a new title comes out.


Good question. But I've watched more than a few pre-order pages over the last year and pre-order sales seem to impact the ranking DURING the pre-order stage. I've seen some romance novels ranked at #100 or #500 in the Kindle during the pre-order. Maybe that drives more pre-orders.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Quiss said:


> This is a relief for those who aren't likely to get a bazillion of pre-orders (which would shoot the book to the top of the lists immediately) but doesn't this make pre-orders sort of useless?
> 
> If rank isn't impacted, I'd rather have people put themselves on my mail list to get news as soon as a new title comes out.


I use it at other stores for coordinating releases ahead of time and getting the URLs for backmatter and so on long in advance. Then there is nothing for me to actually do on release day.


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## SA_Archer (Dec 20, 2013)

Al Dente said:


> This is awesome. I don't have it listed in my dashboard yet, but if they approve this for everyone, it could really help with several projects I've been working on. This could be great for serials especially.


This could be epic for serials! I totally agree!


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

Quiss said:


> This is a relief for those who aren't likely to get a bazillion of pre-orders (which would shoot the book to the top of the lists immediately) but doesn't this make pre-orders sort of useless?
> 
> If rank isn't impacted, I'd rather have people put themselves on my mail list to get news as soon as a new title comes out.


It's useful if you don't care about ranking and the potential visibility a good ranking can get your book.

Here's what happened to my pre-order book. I have almost 500 in pre-order sales when my book was released. The day it was released I accumulated another 300 and some first day sales. My ranking moved but only by as much as the 300 sales could move me. I think I may have gone below 800 but not by much. If I'd have all 800 sales release day, I would have definitely gotten into the #100s in the ebook store.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Wonder how Amazon will deal with authors who miss the release date.

Do people pay when they pre-order? If so, what if the book doesn't drop?
Or, if they forgot they ordered it, could we be dealing with more returns?

Always so many questions... Makes ya want to go look at the FAQ...


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

Rich Amooi said:


> Good question. But I've watched more than a few pre-order pages over the last year and pre-order sales seem to impact the ranking DURING the pre-order stage. I've seen some romance novels ranked at #100 or #500 in the Kindle during the pre-order. Maybe that drives more pre-orders.


Pre-orders are great if you if can get your book on a list during the pre-order period. I usually tell people that if your book is destined to hit a list, pre-orders are wonderful. Your book is going to sell no matter what.

If you're not bound for the best seller lists and need visibility and ranking to sell well, pre-orders -- especially if you get a lot -- will not help you.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Quiss said:


> Wonder how Amazon will deal with authors who miss the release date.
> 
> Do people pay when they pre-order? If so, what if the book doesn't drop?
> Or, if they forgot they ordered it, could we be dealing with more returns?
> ...


Other vendors require you have the book ready before letting you do the pre-order. I assume Amazon is the same.


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

Liv & Lacey said:


> Hum, my only concern with opening pre-orders to everyone is clogging the top 100 lists with unreleased books. For a while, Smashwords had all their books listed by publication date, so to get to the current day's releases, you had to click through 20+ pages of pre-orders. I'm wondering how the lists might change on Amazon.
> 
> At all the other retailers, preorders are all counted on release day. It's strange that Amazon wouldn't have the same process.


Preorders are counted on release day, just not toward ranking. And it makes sense if you think about it because your book gets a ranking the minute someone buys it on preorder. Then it's just a normal book getting bumped up or down according to how much you sell each day.

Apple -- I know this for a fact -- is different in that it rewards you for the preorders during that period, and then rewards you again by ranking you on the day of release based on your TOTAL preorder sales and first day sales. That's why I always do preorders with them. It's a win-win situation.


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

Quiss said:


> Wonder how Amazon will deal with authors who miss the release date.
> 
> Do people pay when they pre-order? If so, what if the book doesn't drop?
> Or, if they forgot they ordered it, could we be dealing with more returns?
> ...


Since readers don't pay until release date, canceling it isn't a problem for them.

They can do it two ways:

1. Assetless - don't need to have the book done to put the preorder up but then you'll have to get the book to them X days before release day
2. Need complete book before putting it up for pre-order.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

romanceauthor said:


> They can do it two ways:
> 
> 1. Assetless - don't need to have the book done to put the preorder up but then you'll have to get the book to them X days before release day
> 2. Need complete book before putting it up for pre-order.


Pretty sure they're going with assetless since you only have to submit the final file to them 10 days ahead of publication and two friends with pre-orders through a rep are doing assetless as well.










_Edited to shrink image to accommodate those using mobile devices or older monitors. Thanks for understanding. --Betsy_


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## Michael La Ronn (Jun 17, 2013)

How do you deal with launch pricing with pre-orders? Let's say your book is $4.99 full price, but you launch it at a discount of $0.99? 

I ask because I always offer my books to my mailing list for $0.99 for 1-2 days after launch. I wonder how authors like me would be able to use this feature? Seems like you would have to pre-order for $0.99 (or whatever your launch price is), tell your mailing list and make the encourage them to buy before launch, and then launch at regular price so that there are no hurt feelings.


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

Michael La Ronn said:


> How do you deal with launch pricing with pre-orders? Let's say your book is $4.99 full price, but you launch it at a discount of $0.99?
> 
> I ask because I always offer my books to my mailing list for $0.99 for 1-2 days after launch. I wonder how authors like me would be able to use this feature? Seems like you would have to pre-order for $0.99 (or whatever your launch price is), tell your mailing list and make the encourage them to buy before launch, and then launch at regular price so that there are no hurt feelings.


I worked with a rep so I know it was possible to have a pre-order price and release day price. I'm sure Amazon will give authors a way to do that using the KDP platform.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

romanceauthor said:


> Pre-orders do not help your ranking the day you release. I had it once. Used it only that once when I realized how it actually killed my ranking on release day.
> 
> Unless Amazon has changed it recently, your pre-order sales do not go toward your ranking on the day of release. Only the sales on the day of release will effect your ranking.


ditto. My ranking on release day is much better without preorders.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

I don't have this, so I guess they are split testing. That's their usual MO. Do we know yet if this is a lure for Select or not?


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## MJWare (Jun 25, 2010)

Wouldn't it be nice if Amazon announced these new features and programs *before* releasing them.

I have the option (I didn't see it two days ago when I released a book), but am not going to use it until I learn a little bit more.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> I don't have this, so I guess they are split testing. That's their usual MO. Do we know yet if this is a lure for Select or not?


Did you logout and back in? I had to do that before I could see it.


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

VydorScope said:


> Did you logout and back in? I had to do that before I could see it.


Yep, seeing it now when I pull up one of the books I have in draft.


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## wtvr (Jun 18, 2014)

Here's the deets on kdp help pages: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A3P7F81795P0RA&ref_=kdp_EB_PREORDER_phl


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

VydorScope said:


> Did you logout and back in? I had to do that before I could see it.


Yes, the log out didn't work for me.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Yes, the log out didn't work for me.


Try clearing your cache.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I still don't see it and I logged in and out and checked my story I have in draft status (I start the meta data process before a book is ready to publish to save time later on). Maybe you have to have X many books for sale or x many lifetime sales for it to be available.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> I still don't see it and I logged in and out and checked my story I have in draft status (I start the meta data process before a book is ready to publish to save time later on). Maybe you have to have X many books for sale or x many lifetime sales for it to be available.


Nope, Mark beats me in both of those.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Wansit said:


> Try clearing your cache.


Nope. Tried that. I just read the FAQ. It doesn't seem to need select, just a book that is new. 10 titles max at a time, and you have to upload the book file for them to check, and be ready to upload the final edited version before launch day. I tell you what is excellent about this. An ASIN will be assigned, which in turn means you can claim the title at ACX and get the book narrated BEFORE the book is released. Do the same with Createspace, and you can have all three formats linked in time for release day.

We all know the first 30 days is the best sales. Having your audio there earning alongside the kindle will be epic!


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

From KDP Help:

Eligibility
Only new KDP books are eligible for pre-order. Public domain books are not eligible for pre-order. You may list up to 10 titles at once for pre-order, with room for more pre-order listings as you release each title.
src: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A3P7F81795P0RA&ref_=kdp_EB_PREORDER_phl


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Yes, the log out didn't work for me.


Do you have a book in draft? That's where I see it.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

Amazon just updated the pre-order info page! https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=AGSSZQVFKECO5

Kindle pre-order
You can make your new books available for pre-order in Kindle Stores worldwide. Setting a pre-order allows customers to order your book as early as 90 days before your book's release date. When you make your book available for pre-order, customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set and it will be delivered to them on that date.

One advantage of pre-order is that you can start promoting your book before launch to help raise awareness. You can promote your book's pre-order page on Author Central, Goodreads, your own site, and elsewhere. Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising even before your book is released, which can help more readers discover your book.

How it works
You'll list your book as you would with any other KDP book. When you're adding a new book, on Step 4, "Select Your Book Release Option," you will choose "Make my book available for pre-order" and set a date in the future. That's it.

Though your book isn't available for download yet, we'll still publish a product detail page for it within 24 hours of approval. Customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set and it will be delivered to them on that date. However, customers won't be able to download sample content for pre-order books.
You can list pre-order books in all marketplaces except Amazon.com.in, where pre-orders are not currently available. Your book will release at midnight local time in each marketplace.

Requirements
When you list a book for pre-order, you'll need to upload the final version or a draft manuscript of the book file for review. Typically, a draft manuscript would be something like a complete book that might still need copyediting and proofreading. We won't show the version to customers, but we'll need to preview the content for compliance with our Program Policies before creating the pre-order detail page. It will go through the same review process that any other KDP book would. Your final version must be uploaded 10 days before the release date you set.

Eligibility
Only new KDP books are eligible for pre-order. Public domain books are not eligible for pre-order. You may list up to 10 titles at once for pre-order, with room for more pre-order listings as you release each title.

Reporting and Royalty
Your pre-order report is updated as orders are placed. This report includes pre-ordered units, pre-order cancellations, and net pre-order units. Your pre-order sales data will not appear in other reports until after your book is delivered to customers on its release date. After that, you'll see pre-order units listed in the Prior Months' Royalties report, under the "Pre-order" transaction type.

Once your book is released and customers start downloading their copies, you will receive credit for final sales. Once you meet the monthly minimum sales threshold, you'll be paid royalty approximately 60 days after the end of the month


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

Keeping an eye on this thread as it's very interesting.


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## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

I was so excited about this until I checked my author dashboard page and the pre-release tab wasn't there. I guess I'm not included in the rollout unless they gradually add more authors to the mix. The next book in my series should be ready for release next month and I so wanted to try this out.


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## Diane Patterson (Jun 17, 2012)

MeganBryce said:


> Maybe the effectiveness of preorder depends on where you're at in Courtney Milan's regions of discoverability. I'm a solid phase two and preorder at Apple was pretty much awesome for my sales. I hope it will be the same for Amazon.


As RomanceAuthor has been pointing out...at least with the way they have been running it, preorders are NOT THE SAME at Amazon.

Apple: stacks up pre-orders counts them all for you on Launch Day. If you get 100 orders a day for a week before launch and then 50 on launch day, Apple gives you a ranking based on 750 orders.

Amazon: counts each order on the day it happens. So if you get 100 orders a day for a week before launch and then 50 orders on launch day...Amazon figures your rank from wherever you were on Day -1 with 50 orders.

I don't know of very many authors who have been happy with Amazon's pre-order strategy. It will be interesting to see if it's different now.


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## Michael La Ronn (Jun 17, 2013)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Nope. Tried that. I just read the FAQ. It doesn't seem to need select, just a book that is new. 10 titles max at a time, and you have to upload the book file for them to check, and be ready to upload the final edited version before launch day. I tell you what is excellent about this. An ASIN will be assigned, which in turn means you can claim the title at ACX and get the book narrated BEFORE the book is released. Do the same with Createspace, and you can have all three formats linked in time for release day.


If this is true, you, sir, are a genius.


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

They do require you have a draft of the book to upload when you setup the pre-order. They'll need to check it out a bit to make sure everything is looking okay and probably that the book is being written. So not an assetless preorder but a good one to cover them and customers as much as they can.


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

MeganBryce said:


> True, and I get that Amazon's preorder will be different from Apple's. But my boost came from sales of my other books during the preorder period, not just for the new book. For me, getting that book into preorder was a huge boost to visibility for an extra couple of weeks.


Very good point. I think each author will have to figure out how it can benefit them the most--if at all. In some cases, I'm sure preorders will be the bee's knees.


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Oh, cool. I'm getting ready to release the 4th in my Angel Series. If I send out an advance email to all those on my email lists, I might have a shot at doing well on release day, so I may have to give this a shot. It's showing on my KDP dashboard too.


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## JETaylor (Jan 25, 2011)

It's not on my dashboard yet.    And I cleared my cache just in case.


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## Midnight Whimsy (Jun 25, 2013)

DTW said:


> The only advantage of this is it gives you a product page to point advertisers to when trying to arrange launch ads. This would remove the emails where you have to convince them that "yes there really will be a book out on the date of the ad, please can we just go ahead and set the ad up now?"
> 
> The rest of this I see as a negative for all of us who AREN'T already self-sustaining marketing forces. If that's too metaphorical, let me be clearer; this has the strong potential to make the fat and happy fatter and happier, while those who are trying to claw up the mountain will have to fight more amongst themselves to get any traction.
> 
> ...


I was excited about this until I read your post. Now I'm really worried. Fingers crossed for a "Coming Soon" list.

M.W


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## Michael La Ronn (Jun 17, 2013)

DTW said:


> How screwed are writers who aren't big names going to be when it's not 40% of that valuable real-estate that's covered with pre-orders, but 50, 60, 70, 80?


Probably not anymore screwed than we are already. 

All joking aside, you make good (and sobering) points, and it will be interesting for sure to see how this changes the landscape.

If this launches in time for my next book, I'm thinking about a doing a 1-2 day pre-order just to see what happens. I'll offer it as an incentive for my mailing list and nothing more. They pay and then get the book the next day, just in time for the weekend. I have a modest mailing list and the number of sales I'll get from them probably won't get me into the Top 100 in any category, so I'm not terribly concerned about cannibalizing my sales. That would be a nice problem to have, though.  It's really just a value-added thing I can offer, and then charge $2.99 as the launch price for everyone else, and then $4.99 as the full price. But who knows if that will even work?


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

DTW said:


> http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/books/9059890011/ref=zg_bs_tab_t_bsnr
> Supernatural Thrillers, Hot New Releases, page 1 (#1-20). 8 of the 20 are pre-orders. That's 8 other books that are out NOW that aren't on the list getting visibility. And those eight pre-orders get to extend their visibility on that list for the duration of the pre-order period as long as they keep selling during the pre-order period. Some of those pre-orders have launch dates in 2015!!! That's months of time where they're bumping a book that's out NOW, desperate for exposure, off the list. Including page 2 of that same list, (now covering #1-40) we see 16 of the 40 are pre-orders. One of the most valuable free marketing tools for any indie who isn't at that self-sustaining marketing level is the exposure Hot New Releases offers. How screwed are writers who aren't big names going to be when it's not 40% of that valuable real-estate that's covered with pre-orders, but 50, 60, 70, 80?
> 
> Unless pre-orders get segregated into a 'coming soon' list (or some such), throwing pre-orders open wide is bad for EVERYONE who isn't already successful, or who isn't prepared to increase their marketing spends to swim even harder against the upstream current.


I will say that the "big" self-published authors already have the ability to place their books up on Amazon for pre-orders. Many of them choose not to because of the liability to rankings reason. So I really don't see this changing much. There are very few self-published authors who have sales enough to get them onto the big lists for an extended period of time.

And since NY already has this ability, nothing will change in that respect. The only way I see pre-orders taking up the kind of real estate you're talking about is if the pre-order period for books going up is very short and the author advertises the pre-orders like mad.


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## meh (Apr 18, 2013)

I didn't see it until I clicked on "Add a New Title." Then lower in the page it shows I have the option to make the book available for pre-order. 

I'm totally doing this, because I've already begun efforts to promote a new title I have coming out September 1--it's on pre-order at Smashwords, which means also iBook and BN. I'm not at the level where day of sales ranking will mean much to me. This will help me coordinate the release.


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## Jill James (May 8, 2011)

I see it as a great method to organize release day everywhere and to help with getting ads for a new release easier.


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

I'm not sure about this. When I've got a book ready to go, I want to release it, not sit on it for 10 days or longer. And I'd rather not have the deadline pressure of trying to guess the day my book's going to be ready or having to hurry up and release it if I decide it needs a little more time.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Jill James said:


> I see it as a great method to organize release day everywhere and to help with getting ads for a new release easier.


This. It'll help a lot to get things going.
(Although I can't see myself waiting 10 days when I'm good to go, frankly)

If anything, _not_ lumping all orders together for a big rankings boost assures me that Amazon is NOT giving preference to the big guns (again). Readers like me will just scroll past unavailable books until they find something that they can actually buy. 
So this really just appeals to the fan base for any given author.


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

*********


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> I wonder if they'll allow reviews to be posted during the preorder period. For folk getting ARCs.


I'm looking at Liliana's page and it doesn't look like it. :-/ http://www.amazon.com/Whiskey-Youre-Devil-Addison-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00HL3DI62

Says "This item has not been released yet and is not eligible to be reviewed."


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

In the New Releases, there are separate categories for "Last 30 Days" and "Coming Soon," so it didn't mess that up.

I might give pre-orders a go with the second (and maybe later) books of a series I'm going to start releasing later this year, if I have a better idea of when they're going to be ready to go. but the release of the first book is so delayed I don't want to sit on it any longer than necessary once it is ready.


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## jimkukral (Oct 31, 2011)

Think of it this way. What does Hollywood do when a new movie is coming out? They blast trailers for it to get people excited about it. It's pre education. It's much easier to sell something to someone when they're already educated about it. That's why pre-launches work. Instead of just dropping your content on somebody outta the blue, you pre-sell them that it's coming. Then when it's ready to buy they have already made the decision easier in their head. Amazon is just giving us the opportunity to build anticipation, but also the ability for someone to actually pay for it before it's released. 

I for one love this new feature and will be using it for my latest book which I was already offering pre-order directly through Gumroad.


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## Lady Vine (Nov 11, 2012)

Kyra Halland said:


> I'm not sure about this. When I've got a book ready to go, I want to release it, not sit on it for 10 days or longer. And I'd rather not have the deadline pressure of trying to guess the day my book's going to be ready or having to hurry up and release it if I decide it needs a little more time.


I think this will be great for serials, especially if you have the latter parts already written and your release schedule is every few weeks.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

On mine there is an additional _new_ link to me anyway under reports on mine, but I find the Pro-order one more exciting. However, once I have a ms complete, I'm not likely to hold off on publication. I wonder if you could upload the unedited version & then replace it before publishing though.


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## Jim Johnson (Jan 4, 2011)

Lady Vine said:


> I think this will be great for serials, especially if you have the latter parts already written and your release schedule is every few weeks.


Yeah, I think it'll be great for when I publish the first book of my series and can upload the drafts of the next two or three as pre-orders. I can still finish and edit the upcoming books, but I can start collecting pre-orders in the meantime. This might also help series writers manage some of the readers who are leery about investing in a series and not knowing if the rest of the books will come out. Previewing book 1 of a projected trilogy and seeing pre-orders for books 2 and 3 might give some readers more confidence.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

JRTomlin said:


> On mine there is an additional _new_ link to me anyway under reports on mine, but I find the Pro-order one more exciting. However, once I have a ms complete, I'm not likely to hold off on publication. I wonder if you could upload the unedited version & then replace it before publishing though.


Gosh Amazon, you're really trying to kill us with excitement aren't you? That looks like the new pay-to-play feature Quiss. I've heard Amazon is going to make front-page and list ads available to all sellers.


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## Lady Vine (Nov 11, 2012)

Jim Johnson said:


> This might also help series writers manage some of the readers who are leery about investing in a series and not knowing if the rest of the books will come out. Previewing book 1 of a projected trilogy and seeing pre-orders for books 2 and 3 might give some readers more confidence.


That's actually a very good point. I had mulled over the idea of releasing the second part a few days after the first, you know, to let them know I'm not a one-hit wonder, but this is a much better idea. Very exciting to see where this goes.


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## S.A. Mulraney (May 20, 2011)

Wansit said:


> Gosh Amazon, you're really trying to kill us with excitement aren't you? That looks like the new pay-to-play feature Quiss. I've heard Amazon is going to make front-page and list ads available to all sellers.


Any guesses on how much _that_ would cost? Oy.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Excellent, and just in time for Easymode September where I have some collections coming out.

One less launch day frustration and the 'I swear to god a book is coming, I just don't have a link' dance.

It'd be nice if it acted like a real pre-order, but at least it's not shackled to Select.


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## jamielakenovels (Jan 14, 2014)

Anyone want to discuss Pre-Order strategies??

I'm interested in the Amazon Advertising option. I have a feeling that someone read and listened to that long letter we wrote Jeff Bezos with the ideas we had and they may soon be offering a BookBub type of service more custom-tailored for our audience and much cheaper than BookBub. JRTomlin click on Advertising campaigns and copy and paste what you see here, please.

**** UPDATE *** *Why is it my predictions about Amazon always come true? Haha. Read this regarding a possible BookBub-type service: 
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,192454.0.html?PHPSESSID=Bq5qhwuYeFG0B,rN53OEQ3


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## CaraS. (Jul 18, 2014)

Excuse me if this already has a thread, just read this article, thought I'd pass it along for comments:

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/08/2014/kindle-pre-order/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

Post that here Cara - http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,192470.0.html


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## ToriWritesWords (Mar 26, 2014)

This is so awesome! (I'm not contributing at all, I'm just very excited.)


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Anyone know if after you set a pre-order date, can you change it?


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Anyone know if after you set a pre-order date, can you change it?


https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A3BZQWK1PSQ7ID


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

I think I'll try it with the Christmas story I've been holding onto.  It's been 75-80 percent edited for the last month, and I don't think I can stand to wait till Christmas to publish it!  Maybe I'll put up the preorder, set for sometime next month.  That should give me plenty of time, and I'll see what happens.  It's low pressure because I'm not expecting a Christmas story to sell super well this time of year, but I still don't want to hold off till later.


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## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

I'm in! I am half-way through the second draft of the third book in my nonprofit guidebook series. This seems like a perfect way to market it in advance (as soon as I finish the current draft.)


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Okay, well that's fair. Definitely a think... so yes you can delay, but you wouldn't want to delay and get the 12 month time out penalty.

Alrighty then, strategy.

Basically, I would need to be PATIENT (oooh that word and I are not friends) and have TWO books ready for publication. Book one is the "new release" and Book Two is the pre order. When Book One Releases, I need to pick a release date for Book Two and set up the pre order BEFORE I publish Book One. In the back of Book One, I'd put a link to the pre-order page for Book Two to help capture those readers who finish Book One and must have book two. Again, Book Two is done. And I would be working to have book Three done BEFORE Book Two publishes so that the final page of Book 2 can go to the Book 3 pre order link. 

Then, once I was ready to do my boxed set with a bonus novella in it, I would put the pre order link to THAT with the discounted price. And that way on release day, I would increase the price of the boxed set to regular price so that fans got the book before it was regular price. (That part of the preorder strategy could be used by anyone, use a pre-order to advertise a 99 cent or $1.99 price for email readers. 

Another idea would be to advertise that PRE ORDERS get a bonus book that you take out when the book goes live Day One by updating the Amazon file (and remove mention of in the listing). That might entice readers to buy a Pre Order, make it a collector's edition (of course, if they update their Kindle Books, or download the book to another device, I don't know if they'd lose that extra novella)


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## Renata F. Barcelos (Jun 28, 2012)

SA_Archer said:


> Beyond the sale rank issue, which probably won't affect me one way or the other because I'm microscope in the Amazon ocean anyway, I like the idea of drawing readers who reach the latest book in the series to pre-order the next one while they are excited. If I release only once every few months, they might forget about me by the next book. But if they've pre-ordered and the book shows up on their Kindle, it'll be a fabulous reminder that they were excited about the series, and they don't even have to do anything else (like click a link in an email, make a purchase, ect) to get it.
> 
> If we can always have the next book ready to go as pre-order in the back we can keep readers rolling along with the series, instead of losing them between releases.
> 
> I was excited to be able to break the news!  Everyone here has helped me so much.


^^This.

This is absolutely amazing. I hope it comes soon enough!


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## jamielakenovels (Jan 14, 2014)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Another idea would be to advertise that PRE ORDERS get a bonus book that you take out when the book goes live Day One by updating the Amazon file (and remove mention of in the listing). That might entice readers to buy a Pre Order, make it a collector's edition (of course, if they update their Kindle Books, or download the book to another device, I don't know if they'd lose that extra novella)


I was thinking the same thing, offering a bonus to pre-order. A bonus chapter or some goody giveaway. Did someone answer already if you can make the pre-order price cheaper and then the day after the release "regular" price?


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## David Wisehart (Mar 2, 2010)

Pre-orders could help with "The Liliana Nirvana Technique" of releasing 5 books with "one in the hole."

http://www.hughhowey.com/the-liliana-nirvana-technique/

If you could write two books per month, you'll have six books written in the 90-day pre-order window. So as each one is drafted, make it available for pre-order. Set the launch day 90 days from completion of the first book. As each sequel is written, make it available for pre-order, launching the same day as book 1. And so on for the others.

Thoughts?


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

I


David Wisehart said:


> Pre-orders could help with "The Liliana Nirvana Technique" of releasing 5 books with "one in the hole."
> 
> http://www.hughhowey.com/the-liliana-nirvana-technique/
> 
> ...


I wrote one-full length book (first draft to edited) in a little less than 60 days. Two books a month would be a HUGE stretch. Can't see me putting myself through the stress of trying to do that.


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## Jim Johnson (Jan 4, 2011)

David Wisehart said:


> If you could write two books per month, you'll have six books written in the 90-day pre-order window. So as each one is drafted, make it available for pre-order. Set the launch day 90 days from completion of the first book. As each sequel is written, make it available for pre-order, launching the same day as book 1. And so on for the others.


I think a smart production schedule could make this work. You publish book n and also upload the latest draft of book n+1 to enable the pre-order for book n+1. Then when you publish book n+1, you upload the latest draft of book n+2 to get pre-orders rolling. And so on.

I can envision a production schedule where one might set up the pre-order at the same time as the completed draft goes to an editor or whatever your post-production stages are prior to publishing.


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## Decon (Feb 16, 2011)

I let you know how I progress. I should go live as a pre-order tomorrow for Deadly Journey, ready for Sept 1st. All uploaded and in review. It works out great for me as I have a few ARC comments coming back to me during next week, so I can make any last minute changes. I have to upload the finished  MS Before the 22nd August. Failure to do that and it says I won't be allowed another pre-order for 12 months. I just have to hope it shows as a 'Coming soon' on Saturday. Monday the first of Sept is maybe not the best day to choose for a release date, but we'll see.

I don't have  big sales, so I'll soon know if it makes a difference.

Good timing really because it was already edited, proofread and formatted, but I wasn't about to publish in August.

I'll put it on my blog tomorrow and hit all the social media buttons.


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## annerallen (Jun 12, 2011)

Lots of great info in this thread. Thanks everybody!


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## Guest (Aug 14, 2014)

Quote:
_*"What does Hollywood do when a new movie is coming out? They blast trailers for it to get people excited about it."*_

Perhaps we could do this with short book preview trailers on YouTube, emphasizing the release date.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

I just received the announcement from Amazon about pre-orders. In there, it says:

"With a few quick and easy steps you can create a pre-order page up to 90 days in advance of your book's release date--your pre-order product page will be created within 24 hours. ... Visit your KDP Bookshelf to set up your new book for pre-order."

But when I go there, I just see my regular bookshelf with no added buttons I can see. How does one set this up?


Philip


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## Marie Long (Jan 11, 2014)

I received the email, too. This new feature does sound intriguing. However, the obvious big drawback seems to be that the preorder sales ranking doesn't carry over once the book is out. Ranking is everything on Amazon. It's the only way your book has a chance of getting noticed.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Not all that helpful:



> Requirements
> When you list a book for pre-order, *you'll need to upload the final version or a draft manuscript of the book file for review*. Typically, a draft manuscript would be something like a complete book that might still need copyediting and proofreading. We won't show the version to customers, but we'll need to preview the content for compliance with our Program Policies before creating the pre-order detail page. It will go through the same review process that any other KDP book would. *Your final version must be uploaded 10 days before the release date you set*.


https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=AGSSZQVFKECO5

Plus, the ranking does not save up and all hit on release day.



> Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising even before your book is released, which can help more readers discover your book.


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## Lady Vine (Nov 11, 2012)

Dunno if anyone's mentioned elsewhere, but I'm seeing Frequently Bought Together lists on series books now. This must coincide with a) the preorders, and b) the advertising that they're rolling out. Here's hoping that we'll finally be able to do discounts when people buy all books in a series.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

*I just received the following email from KDP:*

Hello,

We're excited to announce that you can now make your new books available for pre-order in Kindle Stores worldwide. With a few quick and easy steps you can create a pre-order page up to 90 days in advance of your book's release date--your pre-order product page will be created within 24 hours. When you make your book available for pre-order, customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set. We will deliver it to them on that date.

One advantage of using pre-order is that you can start promoting your Kindle book pre-order page on Author Central, Goodreads, your personal website, and other places ahead of its release to help build excitement for your book. Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising ahead of release, which can help more readers discover your book.

Visit your KDP Bookshelf - https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/dashboard?ref=2 to set up your new book for pre-order.

Best regards,
The Kindle Direct Publishing Team

Questions? Learn more about pre-order on our Help page -
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A3P7F81795P0RA&ref_=3


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

SA_Archer said:


> So I was just checking my stats on KP, and noticed that under 'reports' there is now a link to show pre-orders. Anyone know the scoop? Can we start listing pre-orders on Amazon now? And if so, how is that going to change your sales and marketing strategies in the future?
> 
> I am not really tech-savvy, but I am going to try and include the screenshot, but if it doesn't show up I'll also put the link to where I put it on photobucket.
> 
> ...


Yes, I just got the official email from Amazon about this: Indies FINALLY have pre-order buttons, should we choose to use them! Yay!

P.S. No doubt there are those who will point at this as somehow being indicative of Amazon's evilness, even though yesterday they were complaining the lack of indie pre-order buttons were... indicative of Amazon's evilness.

Sometimes, you just can't win...


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Rich Amooi said:


> Hmmm. I'm publishing my debut novel in less than two weeks. I wonder if I should make it three to four weeks and start promoting pre-orders. Hmmm.


Why not?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Kia Zi Shiru said:


> Keeping an eye on this thread as it's very interesting.


Did y'all know you can bookmark this thread? Tap "Add Bookmark" at the top of the thread, in there with the reply and quote buttons.

To see and manage your bookmarks, tap on the My Bookmarks link in our top menu system.

Glad to hear about the pre-orders!

Betsy


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## Renata F. Barcelos (Jun 28, 2012)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Anyone know if after you set a pre-order date, can you change it?


Exactly what I want to know... I was about to finish submitting my next book, but it says I'll have to have it ready by November 3, and it will be a bit difficult that, since my editor will return it on November 01. Maybe I should wait to launch my pre order in 2 days...


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Diane Patterson said:


> As RomanceAuthor has been pointing out...at least with the way they have been running it, preorders are NOT THE SAME at Amazon.
> 
> Apple: stacks up pre-orders counts them all for you on Launch Day. If you get 100 orders a day for a week before launch and then 50 on launch day, Apple gives you a ranking based on 750 orders.
> 
> ...


Well, keep in mind, the way Amazon does this for indies mirrors the way it's done by Amazon for trad-pubs.

That's how a book like Revival by Stephen King, though it won't be released until November, has current rankings like this:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,564 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Suspense > Horror
#8 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror > United States
#24 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Those are based on the preorders being taken during the preorder period.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

Basically, what you need is a book done every 80 days.

To start you need book 1 finished and book 2 in late drafting stage. From day 1 (release day book 1) you have 80 days to edit book 2 and write book 3. At day 80 you put in the final version of book 2 and the draft version of book 3. Then you spend 80 days editing book 3 and writing book 4.
And on and on. (If I do the maths right, it's late here...)



Betsy the Quilter said:


> Did y'all know you can bookmark this thread? Tap "Add Bookmark" at the top of the thread, in there with the reply and quote buttons.
> 
> To see and manage your bookmarks, tap on the My Bookmarks link in our top menu system.
> 
> ...


I know, but I keep forgetting to check those and when I reply I see them in my "show new replies to your posts" bit, I'm sorry I'm easily distracted.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Did y'all know you can bookmark this thread? Tap "Add Bookmark" at the top of the thread, in there with the reply and quote buttons.
> 
> To see and manage your bookmarks, tap on the My Bookmarks link in our top menu system.
> 
> ...


But Bookmarks dont tell you when there is a new post. This board does not have a "subscribe" feature which would reduce the radom replies... but that is all OT right now...

Personally I LOVE pre-orders for the "get ready in advance" aspect as I mentioned a couple pages bag. To have all the URLs and etc in place ahead of time so that you don't actually have to rush to do anything on release day is huge in my book.  I have used it at other stores before, and will likely use it for all future books.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

VydorScope said:


> This board does not have a "subscribe" feature


Yes it does! It's called notify. Click on the notify rectangle at the top or bottom right of any thread and you will get an email when the thread has a new post.


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## CJArcher (Jan 22, 2011)

At RWAus in Sydney on the weekend, Marie Force said she does 3 week pre-orders, so I might try to emulate her schedule. I like the way Apple does pre-order ranking as Beverley mentioned above, but I don't know if Amazon pre-orders will benefit me or not. I like it for getting organised early, getting the ASIN, links and paperback ready before release day. That's be a big help. I think I'll experiment this year and see if the ranking issue is a problem for me or not.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

LisaGraceBooks said:


> Oh, cool. I'm getting ready to release the 4th in my Angel Series. If I send out an advance email to all those on my email lists, I might have a shot at doing well on release day, so I may have to give this a shot. It's showing on my KDP dashboard too.


I'm excited, too.

I have several projects in the works, and I want them to be pretty much "ready to go" before I even upload them to KDP, let alone release them, but now, with this pre-order tool, I can build momentum better for the projects I'm getting set to release.

I have a horror/serial killer novel in the works that will be released in three parts; I want to space the parts out by 2-4 weeks between, and having the pre-order tool available will be a big boon to that project.

I also have another horror/serial killer novel that I'm trying to get off my plate, as it's what's destroyed me the last few years, working on it. (EyeCU... I need to just polish it up and move on with my life.) I won't go into the nightmare that's been, but once I get the polish done and get it edited, I'll be coordinating its release with my other projects to help build momentum.

And finally, I've gone all-in on doing a project in a "TV series-like" concept, prepping 13 individual short stories (episodes) for a "Season One" of the idea. Each episode is a self-contained part of a larger storyline. It's a satire/comedy/sitcom sort of deal and ought to be fun.

I've been wanting to prep all 13 episodes and release them a week apart. The nice thing about this preorder tool being available is now I can "schedule" the whole season so each episode drops on the same day each week for 13 weeks in a row! Again, huge advantages to that.

So, within the next six months to a year, I plan to be unleashing about 300K words-worth of new material, comprising about 17 new titles... having the pre-order tool is going to be quite advantageous in this regard, in terms of making it all work and release "on time."


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Something to consider:

Up until now, the 30 days of eligibility for the hot new release list has started when the ASIN was assigned. It also starts the 30 days until the 30-day cliff.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

I did two preorders with Apple and I won't be doing it again. Too much pressure for this old gal. Ten days is a nightmare too. When the book is done, it can be sold on B&N, Apple and Kobo ten days earlier. It is impossible to set all the vendors up so that the book is published on the same day. Kobo and B&N publish quickly these days, but Apple takes ten days no matter what.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

VydorScope said:


> But Bookmarks dont tell you when there is a new post. This board does not have a "subscribe" feature which would reduce the radom replies... but that is all OT right now...


Agree, it's not the only way...though it DOES show "new" posts.

Just wanted to make sure y'all know.

And, yes, we do have a subscribe feature, by the way...only here it's called "Notify" and it's up there in the same area as "Add Bookmark." Just sayin'. (EDIT: Cherise/Cherished beat me to it. )

Betsy


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## Meeshap2000 (Jun 29, 2014)

Just got the KDP email. Thanks Amazon for leveling the playing field even more!


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Cherise Kelley said:


> Something to consider:
> 
> Up until now, the 30 days of eligibility for the hot new release list has started when the ASIN was assigned. It also starts the 30 days until the 30-day cliff.


One can reasonably assume that Amazon is not rock-stupid and will make the appropriate adjustments to their formulas, to take into account this new tool, and "actual" release dates vs. up to 90 days of "pre-order" existence.

After all, they've spent years working out how to make that work for trad-pubs. I think they're capable of adapting the new feature now that it's available to indies.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Merged similar threads, thanks for understanding!

Betsy
KB Mod


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## MajesticMonkey (Sep 3, 2013)

romanceauthor said:


> Pre-orders do not help your ranking the day you release. I had it once. Used it only that once when I realized how it actually killed my ranking on release day.
> 
> Unless Amazon has changed it recently, your pre-order sales do not go toward your ranking on the day of release. Only the sales on the day of release will effect your ranking.


Was thinking exactly the same although I have never used the feature. Thanks for sharing your real live experience. (and sorry for what they did to your latest release on Monday, I hope it recovered. Saw it in another thread.)


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## A.A (Mar 30, 2012)

I had a book up for pre-order in May this year (since March) and I wasn't impressed in comparison to just releasing a book 'cold turkey'. I think it hurt those all-important release rankings. (I'm not sure if they've changed the way pre-orders work now though in regard to rankings.)

But, I'm sure there's lots of different strategies that a pre-order would be great for, so good to have this option from Amazon


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

* evil look crosses face *

Hmm... I wonder...

Now that indies have pre-order buttons, I wonder how easy it would be to talk Amazon into taking them away from indies siding with Hachette?

* evil cackle *






_YouTube link for those for whom the embed no longer works, like me on my iPad. --Betsy_ 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRamB30E9mU


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## EllisaBarr (Apr 22, 2014)

My first book did great and continued to climb as long as it was on the Hot New Release list (in a small niche), but as soon as it fell off, things started to decline.  To me, pre-orders give me more time to sit on that list (if I can get up there again).  I'm thrilled.  

My worry is that I offered my mailing list a $.99 launch price, and I don't want it priced at $.99 for the entire pre-order period.  I suppose I could do the pre-order at $3.99 and then on launch day, manually change the pricing everywhere to $.99 before I notify my mailing list.  Does that sound fair?  A little complicated maybe but not as complicated as trying to coordinate same-day launches on every platform.

So excited to try this!  Now I just need a cover which means I'm going to have to finalize a title.  And blurb.  UGH.


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

MajesticMonkey said:


> Was thinking exactly the same although I have never used the feature. Thanks for sharing your real live experience. (and sorry for what they did to your latest release on Monday, I hope it recovered. Saw it in another thread.)


You're so sweet. No it never recovered but I was pretty ecstatic with the way it performed up to that point. 

Got stuff up my sleeve when it comes to launching the remainder of my books. Hopefully, everything will go as planned.


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Looks like the Amazon Elf that patrols KBoards is really listening. 

So we got our reasonable KU payout, and now a pre-order button. What next...? 

Dear Amazon Elf,
I have always wanted a miniature brown and white-speckled pony. I am in Select and was there before KU. I have been very good. Please grant my wish.
Sincerely,
Lisa Akers


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> And, yes, we do have a subscribe feature, by the way...only here it's called "Notify" and it's up there in the same area as "Add Bookmark." Just sayin'. (EDIT: Cherise/Cherished beat me to it. )
> 
> Betsy


Notify is not the same.  With "new replies" I have a one stop shop to see all the threads I want to read first. Notify does not show up there, at least I don't think it does?


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

I got an email from KDP. Pre-orders WILL count toward ranking. Not sure how many others got the email.

"One advantage of using pre-order is that you can start promoting your Kindle book pre-order page on Author Central, Goodreads, your personal website, and other places ahead of its release to help build excitement for your book. Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising ahead of release, which can help more readers discover your book."

I was planning to offer my next book at $.99 for the first day, like Elissa said. I'll have to get more information on whether the price is locked for pre-orders. If I do it, it'll be at $3.99, with a one day sale on release date.


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## JenEllision (Jan 13, 2014)

> Pre-orders WILL count toward ranking. Not sure how many others got the email.





> pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising ahead of release, which can help more readers discover your book.


I got the e-mail too and yeah, something near identical is in the pre-order FAQ they have up. That language read funny to me so I contacted them to asked for clarification.

*Me:*

Hello! I was hoping someone could clarify this statement from this page for me:

"Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising even before your book is released, which can help more readers discover your book"

https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=AGSSZQVFKECO5

Does this mean 1) that pre-orders will contribute to the RELEASE DAY ranking? or 2) that pre-orders will contribute to the Amazon ranking during the pre-order period?

*Amazon:

It means the second option: preorders will contribute to the Amazon ranking during the preorder period. The page will tell customers that your book is available for pre-order and each time a customer pre-orders your book it will count toward your sales rank, giving further exposition to your books.*

So yes, to counting toward ranking, but no to release day rank boost!


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## heidi_g (Nov 14, 2013)

I just set up a pre-order for my next release!!!!!  It went very fast, but I've had a lot of it in draft mode for awhile. 
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQAUKS4
However, the age group is wrong, have to fix that as soon as it gets out of review mode! But still, it's exciting!


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## W.W. (Jun 27, 2011)

JenEllision said:


> I got the e-mail too and yeah, something near identical is in the pre-order FAQ they have up. That language read funny to me so I contacted them to asked for clarification.
> 
> *Me:*
> 
> ...


This is exactly how it worked for my traditionally published books. No reviews are allowed to go up until the release date either.


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## Alan Petersen (May 20, 2011)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> I got an email from KDP. Pre-orders WILL count toward ranking. Not sure how many others got the email.
> 
> "One advantage of using pre-order is that you can start promoting your Kindle book pre-order page on Author Central, Goodreads, your personal website, and other places ahead of its release to help build excitement for your book. Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising ahead of release, which can help more readers discover your book."
> 
> I was planning to offer my next book at $.99 for the first day, like Elissa said. I'll have to get more information on whether the price is locked for pre-orders. If I do it, it'll be at $3.99, with a one day sale on release date.


I was planning on the same strategy for my second book, now I'm thinking if I should put it up for pre-order now. If you have it priced at $3.99 during pre-order, then you drop it to .99 cents on release date, before raising the price again, won't you p*ss off those that pre-ordered? Not sure if they would catch it, but I would be tweaked if I found out.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

I pre-ordered a Stephen King book once when the price was $12.99. During the pre-order period, after I placed my pre-order, they ran a special on the book for two days, where they reduced the price to $7.49, then put it back to $12.99.

On release day, I was charged $7.49, not $12.99. There's no reason to think it would work differently for indies. So, if you mess with your price during the pre-order period, keep this in mind. 

Sent from my LG G2 Android Phone.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

VydorScope said:


> Notify is not the same.  With "new replies" I have a one stop shop to see all the threads I want to read first. Notify does not show up there, at least I don't think it does?


If you have a system that works, by all means, keep using it.

I like "new replies," too, and probably use it and "unread topics" the most. But there are some specific threads I use Bookmark for. I bookmark just a few of the threads that I want to pay particular attention to, or find again for reference. And some I use "Notify" for, so that if I'm not on KBoards, I get the word of a reply. (The Fire FAOTD thread, for example.) Of course, I've posted in so many threads, that "show new replies" has a LOT of threads over several pages.

As for Notify not being the same, I was saying Notify is the same as "Subscribe," which you said we didn't have. I'm not understanding how it's different than what you're looking for? Maybe PM me so as to not derail the thread any longer.

I just wanted, with my initial comment, to make sure people knew that bookmarking was an option, not that anyone had to use it or should use it exclusive of any other method. And I was able to also clarify some confusion about the Bookmark feature, so that was good. My experience as a moderator is that a lot of members aren't aware of these features, so I like to mention them from time to time if I think they'll help someone. It wasn't meant to be a "thing." 

And now we return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

CraigInOregon said:


> I pre-ordered a Stephen King book once when the price was $12.99. During the pre-order period, after I placed my pre-order, they ran a special on the book for two days, where they reduced the price to $7.49, then put it back to $12.99.
> 
> On release day, I was charged $7.49, not $12.99. There's no reason to think it would work differently for indies. So, if you mess with your price during the pre-order period, keep this in mind.
> 
> Sent from my LG G2 Android Phone.


Amazon's policy is that, when you preorder a Kindle book, and the price drops lower during the preorder period, you get the lower price.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201133130


> For Games & Software Downloads, Kindle Books, and Amazon Music:
> Whenever you pre-order digital content, the price we charge you will be the lowest price offered by Amazon.com between the time you placed your order and the time the content is released.


Related anecdote: _To Kill a Mockingbird_ sold at pre-order at $4.55; on release day it was briefly $9.99 (I think--some higher price, anyway) and then, later in the day, dropped to $3.99. Because it dropped after release, they didn't have to match that price for the pre-orders. (Although we could have returned the book and re-purchased it.)

Betsy


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## Rykymus (Dec 3, 2011)

Not going to touch it. Declined it when it was offered to me months ago.

Why?

1. It robs from my "out the gate" ranking. My mailing list puts each of my new releases into the top 50 of Kindle Paid Sales on day one. (Last time it was in the top 10.) If a significant portion of those would-be day 1 purchases are spread out over a month or two before, then it has the potential to water-down the day 1 ranking.

2. I don't get paid for those pre-orders until the book is released, so there is no monetary benefit for me.

3. It ties me to a hard-and-fast release date, with actual punishment doled out by Amazon if I should fail to deliver. My experience is that life tends to get in the way of deadlines. I have enough stress over meeting my own self-imposed deadlines, let alone one I've entered into with Amazon.

4. I don't pre-market.

  All that said, I realize that for others this may be a boon. For that, I am happy. However, as with anything else, I urge everyone to think carefully about how it will affect YOUR situation.

  If those pre-orders were held and counted toward ranking on release day, THEN I'd be excited. But in its current incarnation, all it means is that the lists will be cluttered with pre-orders, which irritate the hell out of me.


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## Joe Ducie (May 15, 2012)

Hmm... I wonder if, at best, for those not already at the top of the pile, to use this function no more than a few days to a week outside of the story going live. Or perhaps if they've got a solid production schedule lined up that sees a new book every two months or so. That way the pre-order link to the next book in the series can go at the back of the previous book.

New ground to explore, ladies and gentlemen. Exciting stuff.


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## Moist_Tissue (Dec 6, 2013)

I wonder if Bookbub will adapt to this change by creating a new category for pre-orders.


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## EC (Aug 20, 2013)

Just got this email in from Zon - 

Hello,
We're excited to announce that you can now make your new books available for pre-order in Kindle Stores worldwide. With a few quick and easy steps you can create a pre-order page up to 90 days in advance of your book's release date--your pre-order product page will be created within 24 hours. When you make your book available for pre-order, customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set. We will deliver it to them on that date.
One advantage of using pre-order is that you can start promoting your Kindle book pre-order page on Author Central, Goodreads, your personal website, and other places ahead of its release to help build excitement for your book. Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising ahead of release, which can help more readers discover your book.
Visit your KDP Bookshelf to set up your new book for pre-order.


WooHoo !!!


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

This could not have come at a more perfect time for me. I expect to publish a novel and two short stories within the next few months. I may try setting up pre-orders.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

We all know. There's already a thread for it.

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,192470.msg2712336.html


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Rykymus said:


> Not going to touch it. Declined it when it was offered to me months ago.
> 
> Why?
> 
> ...


I am totally with you except for the temptation of claiming the book at ACX and getting it narrated and ready for the kindle launch. So paper, audio, and Kindle all launch same day.


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## EC (Aug 20, 2013)

^^ Awww - didn't see it - oh well.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

What I wonder is if/when D2D will enable preorders for other markets, like Smashwords has done.

That'd make setting up preorders/an advance release date extra-cool and easier to coordinate.


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## EC (Aug 20, 2013)

Gathering sales for up to 90 days from customers that may never come back otherwise must be a good thing.


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## Shaun Dowdall (Mar 8, 2013)

I see it as a nice way to structure myself with release schedules. Granted I should be structured enough to stick to my timeline, but having an order date to work towards will keep me on track, it's the way I work best. No harm in trying this for a couple of books.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

So I have had a chance to sleep on this and came up with some more ideas.... if people want them. 

1- Preorder buttons would help those of us who have a ranking high enough to stay on the Hot New Release list for our genre but fall off because of the 30 days. My little niche, I was #1 on the Hot New Release list when the 30 days ended. I changed my publication date and the book went right back in the top ten, helping discoverability. There ARE preorders on that list. So my guess is that when Amazon closes the change the publication date loophole, a preorder will be the only way you can stay on the HNR lists longer than 30 days if your book has the appeal to do so. 

2 - For series, preorders are going to be vital. Having the next book done and written and available as a preorder allows you to set up for readers to preorder the next book when they finish the most recent release. This will help conversion rates. When you write a series, you have to count on readers coming back or being notified somehow that another book is out in the series. This doesn't always happen. What if they don't open that email from Amazon that told them about the next book? Or they meant to act on it, became distracted and moved on? For me? I look at sales ranking as secondary to making ACTUAL sales. Don't get me wrong, it IS nice to plan with getting the highest sales ranking in mind, but it can't be the only factor. Maybe that's just a midlist mentality, but I've seen the sales at ranks thousands higher than where I'm currently chugging along at, and the difference wasn't enough for me to jeopardize the steady stream of sales where I'm at. In other words, I'd rather prerelease for 10 days and get that steady 20-40 sales a day than NOT prerelease and hope that I hit a high enough ranking in the small window of peaking when Also Boughts hit to make up for the 200-400 sales I missed out on.

3- Preorders are great for elevating many of us to professional publisher status. And, we now have a tool to help each other. I can easily coordinate with other authors in my genre to put their pre-order link in the back of my book and vice versa. Before, we could feature each other, but we couldn't give readers much of a call to action. In this way, we can act like publishing confederations where my royalties stay separated from yours, but we can work together to help each stay Also boughts and point readers to each other doubling our reach, but not our individual efforts.

4- Amazon is making it very clear that moving forward, the name of the game is to publish and publish often. There are now short reads best seller lists outside of Kindle Singles program. The 30 day 60 day cliffs etc. And now preorders. They're making it crystal clear that as indies, we need to write well and get it out there.

I understand that some authors are aggravated that preorder sales won't contribute to first day sales, but I don't think that system would make preorders more desirable. If we went with that model, all it would do is make it that much more difficult for established books to make rank. Think about it. If you have a subset of books (new releases with pre orders) suddenly dumping sales from as many as 90 days of collection onto their first day of sales, the best seller list would be WAY too volatile. We'd have different books every single day! Books would fall completely off only to return the next day. That would tick off readers and authors. 

So, we would just need to think in terms of how to take that effect into account. I don't think a 90 day preorder is going to work for most indies UNLESS it's for a series and the indie needs 90 days to finish the book. I do plan to try out preorders with my next release.


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## Joe_Nobody (Oct 23, 2012)

I sincerely hope this new feature helps all who embrace it.

For a while, I announced a new release publically, including statements like "Will be available on Amazon on such-and-such date."

We've missed so many dates, always by at least a day, once by five days.

I've seen lost files, the internet going down at the office due to a thunderstorm (was down over most of the area), an editor sending back the wrong version, a formatting glitch that took two days to fix... you name it, over 16 books I've seen it happen.

Even after we get the book loaded and live, the only way to be sure it's "proper," is to buy one and go over it with a fine-toothed comb. I can recall four or five times where we've found something major in the first few hours after upload and scrambled to get a fix re-uploaded. Two of those instances had nothing to do with our work - Amazon screwed up. I was actually thankful on those occasions that the book had only sold a few hundred copies upon release. I would've probably left the reservation if a few thousand customers had downloaded a bad version.

So I'm going to hold off on this one. I've learned to couch my public remarks and go with: "Should be available on Amazon next week," or the like. Having a hard and fast date would make me a very, very, unpleasant guy to be around those last few days before the release.

Again, I hope all of you good folks bust it lose with this feature. I'll enjoy reading the "it worked!" threads, and suffer a little envy that you all have your act together more so than we do.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

A friend of mine, Vince Trigili gave me a great way to leverage this. You know how Amazon do a price guarantee on preorders? Well, what you could do is put up a preorder at 2.99 and tell your list they have a week to get it before it goes up to 3.99, whereupon they have a week to get it at that price before it goes to its final launch price of 5.99

Amazon will make sure no one pays more than the price they bought it at, and you get a kind of countUP promotion where people are encouraged to buy now rather than later. Should work to increase prerelease ranks upon which to build don'tyou think?


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## pagegirl (Feb 3, 2014)

You have to upload the book when you list it though, don't you? It doesn't have to be the final draft, but it has to be a complete one. I wish this weren't the case but I can certainly understand why. So, what are you going to do? Write it, prerelease it, then wait a while to publish? For me, this won't help as much because my editors are pretty quick, so by the time I have a first draft, it's really not that long before I can actually publish.


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

Jason Gurley did a pre-order recently where he accumulated 100+ reviews *before* launch, via ARCs. So, potentially, this gives the opportunity to launch with reviews in hand.


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## Sean Sweeney (Apr 17, 2010)

This is great. Love it.


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

I think for authors who aren't too concerned about placement on a popular top #100list for visibility, pre-orders will be a fantastic thing. I just browsed through the top #100 romance list and what I saw mostly was:

- Amazon imprints
- Amazon imprints in KU
- Discounted traditionally published books
- .99 self-published books and boxed sets
- Kindle Unlimited books
- Some newly released traditionally published books my popular authors

And what this tells me is it's more difficult than ever to hit one of these major lists unless you fall into one of the above categories.  

Up until KU launched, being launched onto this list was my goal. It no longer is. My goal is to cement my fanbase outside of a retail site. Any visibility on that site will just be bonus. 

So at this point, I'm not necessarily seeing pre-orders as a bad thing.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

romanceauthor said:


> I think for authors who aren't too concerned about placement on a popular top #100list for visibility, pre-orders will be a fantastic thing. I just browsed through the top #100 romance list and what I saw mostly was:
> 
> - Amazon imprints
> - Amazon imprints in KU
> ...


That's what I'm thinking... that the sales rank thing is one way to do visibility, but sustained visibility is also important. For the longest time we were hampered when we tried to promote a book before it releases with no place to direct readers to pre-order a copy. Always better to get a sale while the reader is willing to click the button than wait and lose that sale just because he or she couldn't buy it. There is a very real "excitement" for books coming soon, and now we can capitalize on that excitement without having to just loop it in with the book now being available. There is nothing worse than reaching a reader who wants to read your next book only to have no way to let them lock in a copy and then hoping you can reach them again.


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## pagegirl (Feb 3, 2014)

> There is a very real "excitement" for books coming soon, and now we can capitalize on that excitement without having to just loop it in with the book now being available. There is nothing worse than reaching a reader who wants to read your next book only to have no way to let them lock in a copy and then hoping you can reach them again.


But we have to upload a draft of the new book to set up a preorder, right? So, following the publish of book 1, if you want to set up the preorder of book 2, you need to have the draft ready, which it wouldn't be.


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

pagegirl said:


> You have to upload the book when you list it though, don't you? It doesn't have to be the final draft, but it has to be a complete one. I wish this weren't the case but I can certainly understand why. So, what are you going to do? Write it, prerelease it, then wait a while to publish? For me, this won't help as much because my editors are pretty quick, so by the time I have a first draft, it's really not that long before I can actually publish.


Depends on how each of us defines a "draft". I highly doubt Amazon will be examining the drafts with a fine-tooth comb. I know someone who just uploaded a "12 page" draft. Not sure if there will be any push back, but she knew she had to upload _something_.


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## Shaun Dowdall (Mar 8, 2013)

pagegirl said:


> But we have to upload a draft of the new book to set up a preorder, right? So, following the publish of book 1, if you want to set up the preorder of book 2, you need to have the draft ready, which it wouldn't be.


How rough can our drafts be I wonder?


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## pagegirl (Feb 3, 2014)

That's what I was wondering... For instance, I have something I'd love to set up for preorder but it's missing a couple chapters yet. lol


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

pagegirl said:


> That's what I was wondering... For instance, I have something I'd love to set up for preorder but it's missing a couple chapters yet. lol


I doubt _they'd _know that.


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## Shaun Dowdall (Mar 8, 2013)

I suppose experimenting is the only way we will know


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## Decon (Feb 16, 2011)

Okay. I'm up and running on pre-order with my new release, Deadly Journey, as of today, ready for the first of September. Well, not exactly running because I don't expect anything from it as no one knows. 

I'm not going to do much in the way of marketing, so we'll soon see if an unknown, none high selling author, can garner some sort of traction with any advantage from Amazon creating some sort of visibility. Sink or swim I guess.


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## NoLongerPosting (Apr 5, 2014)

Removed due to site owner's change of TOS.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

pagegirl said:


> You have to upload the book when you list it though, don't you? It doesn't have to be the final draft, but it has to be a complete one. I wish this weren't the case but I can certainly understand why. So, what are you going to do? Write it, prerelease it, then wait a while to publish? For me, this won't help as much because my editors are pretty quick, so by the time I have a first draft, it's really not that long before I can actually publish.


You don't NEED to put it up for 90 days. From the moment you have a final draft you can say "editor needs 2 weeks, I'll need 1 week and Amazon needs 10 days" which means you can set the publication date to 31 days in the future. It's just the last 10 days that you're waiting (and you can decide if you want to wait 10 days after your final version to have it go live or don't do pre-orders and go live immediately).

By the way, has anyone been able to set up with less than 10 days?


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## EveLanglais (Nov 29, 2010)

Vivian Arend said:


> I had to try it. I set up a preorder for a book bundle yesterday night. It's now live for release on Monday. http://amzn.to/1t3ImbF
> 
> I see books on the pre-order report. Very cool!


Very cool. Was the approval process time about the same as with a non pre-order title?


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Ack! That means having the cover done early, right? *bites nails*

Releases tend to be fraught already.


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## AnthonyJMelchiorri (Apr 4, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> Jason Gurley did a pre-order recently where he accumulated 100+ reviews *before* launch, via ARCs. So, potentially, this gives the opportunity to launch with reviews in hand.


That's exactly what I was looking forward to...but it appears that our pre-order pages do not allow reviews until after the book is actually released. So, the rest of us won't be able to pull that off, unfortunately.


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## Alan Petersen (May 20, 2011)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> Jason Gurley did a pre-order recently where he accumulated 100+ reviews *before* launch, via ARCs. So, potentially, this gives the opportunity to launch with reviews in hand.


 On the books available for pre-order you can't leave a review, it says: "This item has not been released yet and is not eligible to be reviewed." I'm curious how that's managed. Do the ARC reviewers email the author the reviews and they post them on the editorial section or he tells them to go to Amazon when it's time to leave the review? And in that process, they pre-order on Amazon, then he emails them the ARC on his own?


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## AnthonyJMelchiorri (Apr 4, 2014)

Alan Petersen said:


> On the books available for pre-order you can't leave a review, it says: "This item has not been released yet and is not eligible to be reviewed." I'm curious how that's managed. Do the ARC reviewers email the author the reviews and they post them on the editorial section or he tells them to go to Amazon when it's time to leave the review? And in that process, they pre-order on Amazon, then he emails them the ARC on his own?


As it seems right now, when the book releases, the author emails the ARC readers to post 'em.

For Jason's situation, his pre-orders were treated differently. He sent out ARCs to the lot of us on his mailing list. IIRC, he has a bit more access to Amazon insiders than the general self-pubbing populace...so that may be why the preorder page allowed reviews before the book was released.


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## Renata F. Barcelos (Jun 28, 2012)

Just clicked the publish as pre-order button for my next book, Wake Me Up Inside. The draft I uploaded is half-way done, so let's see how that goes! 

I love having a deadline, especially a doable one like 90 days, so I can't procrastinate anymore. Now I have got to work!


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

I'm definitely going to try this with my early October release and see what happens. It won't work with the one coming out in early September because I already gave my beta readers a deadline, and it wouldn't be fair to switch it up on them at this stage of the game. But I am really interested to see how this pans out.


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## Rich Amooi (Feb 14, 2014)

What about doing a pre-order for just TWO DAYS for your friends, family, and email list. Tell them you are doing a special price just for them. Blast everyone you know, maybe for a low price of .99. Then, the day it releases, move the price up to 3.99 or 4.99, or whatever your price will be. The goal is not to make money off of your friends and family, just to get some momentum from them. Two days later, your book goes live, and hopefully sold enough to be on a list or two, and you've set up some marketing for that day to push it even higher.


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## Alan Petersen (May 20, 2011)

Rich Amooi said:


> What about doing a pre-order for just TWO DAYS for your friends, family, and email list. Tell them you are doing a special price just for them. Blast everyone you know, maybe for a low price of .99. Then, the day it releases, move the price up to 3.99 or 4.99, or whatever your price will be. The goal is not to make money off of your friends and family, just to get some momentum from them. Two days later, your book goes live, and hopefully sold enough to be on a list or two, and you've set up some marketing for that day to push it even higher.


 I emailed Amazon to ask if it's possible to raise the price during the pre-order stage since that is what I want to do. The first 24-48 hours of the pre-order I want the price at .99cents for folks on my mailing list, Facebook/Twitter peeps, I'll let them know then after the time is up, I want to increase the price for the last 9 days of the per-order period to its regular release date price of $3.99.

A manual pretend countdown clock.


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## David Wisehart (Mar 2, 2010)

The look-inside feature and customer reviews don't seem to be part of the pre-order page.

Adding a book excerpt in the editorial section, and perhaps pull-quotes from unpublished reader reviews (if you can get them), might help encourage pre-orders.

I've been sitting on some early drafts of books, so this pre-order feature is pretty tempting...


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## EllisaBarr (Apr 22, 2014)

Does anyone know if Also-Boughts are immediate on launch day for a book that has gotten a lot of pre-orders?  How great would that be?


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## Renata F. Barcelos (Jun 28, 2012)

My Pre-order is live, and my heart is racing!  Deadline extremely official now...


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Few things I've noticed as I'm planning my preorders...

The cheat to change your publication date appears to be gone now because of preorders. Before, you could keep changing your release date to stay on HNR. 

Sorry looks like only page counts if you have a paperback version already published.


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## Justawriter (Jul 24, 2012)

EllisaBarr said:


> Does anyone know if Also-Boughts are immediate on launch day for a book that has gotten a lot of pre-orders? How great would that be?


They would be because you'd already have them from the pre-order.


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## Justawriter (Jul 24, 2012)

Alan Petersen said:


> I emailed Amazon to ask if it's possible to raise the price during the pre-order stage since that is what I want to do. The first 24-48 hours of the pre-order I want the price at .99cents for folks on my mailing list, Facebook/Twitter peeps, I'll let them know then after the time is up, I want to increase the price for the last 9 days of the per-order period to its regular release date price of $3.99.
> 
> A manual pretend countdown clock.


I researched this and you can, BUT pricing will be retroactive, so best to do it when you launch the pre-order, otherwise if you launch say at 3.99 and then a week later decide to do a .99 day or two, all the sales that came before that day would be recalculated to .99.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Because pre-orders don't get billed until the book goes live, is that right, Pam? I've been wondering if I did it backward setting the pre-order price at $3.99, then planning to do a $0.99 sale the first week the book is live. Now I'm thinking I DID do it backward!

Thanks!

Rue


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## meh (Apr 18, 2013)

My book up for pre-order is already showing also-boughts. So yes, they will be there before the release day. (my book releases on September 1)

Hmm, I'll have to think about the excerpt. But in general I don't like cluttering up my blurb like that.


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## Justawriter (Jul 24, 2012)

ruecole said:


> Because pre-orders don't get billed until the book goes live, is that right, Pam? I've been wondering if I did it backward setting the pre-order price at $3.99, then planning to do a $0.99 sale the first week the book is live. Now I'm thinking I DID do it backward!
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Rue


Yes. I think you are better off if you are going to do a pre-order/new release discount, to do it early on in the pre-order because it will bump up your visibility of the pre-order and also, I wouldn't like it if I paid full price during the pre-order period and then the book did a sale right after launching. That happened to me with the last John Grisham book, I paid 11.99 during pre-order and then less than a week after the book released, it was $3.29 on BookBub&#8230;.it felt like a betrayal to the most loyal readers. So, I will no longer buy his books when they are first released&#8230;..I will wait for the sale rather than get burned again. Plus, 11.99 is just too much anyway!


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Thanks, Pamela. I think I'll drop the price to $0.99 and post a note in the description that it's a limited time new-release sale price. 

Thanks!

Rue


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## jamielakenovels (Jan 14, 2014)

Well, I just uploaded 2 more books in my series plus one for pre-order. I'll send an email to my readers tomorrow morning when they're all up on Amazon, I'd like to see if people order all 3 books at once or if they only order the ones that are available. I'm leaving them all the same price and am not discounting them at this time.

I'll report back in a week or so after I get the results.


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## Kevin Chapman (Jul 5, 2014)

I don't really see the harm in having the price set low throughout the pre-order period and then shortly after launch. I'm not actively promoting my pre-orders, they're just sort of out there, mainly so I can link to them in calls to action from previous books, which I'm going through the process of doing this evening.

My theory is that the people pre-ordering and buying on launch day are my most loyal readers, and have earned the right to get the book cheap by being so excited about it. These are the same people who'll review, tell their friends, and then pre-order the next one the moment they're done. I'm not bothered about losing a bit of cash now by having my pre-order set at 99c. I'd be much more concerned about losing that kind of reader by having them pre-order it at $3.99 and then see it priced at 99c when they come back on launch day to leave their review.


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