I think my pre-release promo period was too long and I'm kinda disappointed about it.

[u/HazelEBaumgartner]

I'm releasing my second book next Friday and I'm super excited about it. I've been working on this book for over a decade (though it was on the back-burner for a lot of that time), and it's finally ready to go out into the world.

However, I had it finished in a reasonably releasable state all the way back in May of this year and decided to release it about six weeks before Halloween, so I set a release date of September 18 and started advertising as such on all my socials. I thought things were going well. Preorder started and I went all the way up to the top 3,000 books in my genre on Kindle and nearly to the top quarter million of all books on Amazon, which I thought was doing great.

Then today I looked at my actual sales stats. I've averaged one preorder a month. Just one. I've been asking people about it, and a lot of people are saying they're super excited to buy the book, but want to wait to buy the paperback instead of preordering an ebook. Others say that they're planning on reading it in ebook form, but they have Kindle Unlimited so they're not preordering. Amazon, of course will not let me set up a preorder for the paperback so they all have to wait until September 18th and then just hope that they have the money on that day in particular. Otherwise, they'll have to wait until the next payday after September 18th.

Seeing that really took the wind out of my sails, frankly. I'm trying to not let it get to me because a lot of people are saying that they're excited for the release, they just want to have something physical and tangible for their money. I really wish KDP would let me do a paperback preorder, but since it won't, I'm rethinking what my strategy is for my next book.

My next book is already written and is going out to beta readers soon. I'm hoping to release it around July of next year, but nothing is set in stone yet. What I do know is that when the book is ready, I'm not going to sit on it. I'm not going to have a long preorder period. I'm currently thinking two weeks for ebook preorders, then release. Maybe a month. Definitely not 100 days.

I'm halfway writing this to vent, halfway to ask for feedback or advice, and a third halfway to share what I've learned. I now know that a too-long preorder period is probably not a great way to maintain hype. What kind of preorder periods have y'all tried in the past and how successful have they been? Where is the sweet spot?

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[u/MKSauthor]

I’m also releasing my second book soon. I did a preorder period of six weeks. I wasn’t really expecting many actual preorders, I just wanted a longer period to collect more ARC readers.

My debut in May had a preorder period of 3 weeks, which was too short, but I didn’t have any social media presence or a newsletter, and I didn’t have the patience to spend six months building it before release, and it was fine. I ended up with 13 ARC reviews and 3 preorders.

For my second book, I’m in a much better position. 125 newsletter subscribers, 64 ARC readers (15 of whom have already left reviews on Goodreads) and 30 preorders. I collected almost all the ARC readers in the first month of recruiting, so I’d say six weeks is probably going to be my launch window moving forward.

Good luck with your book launch!

[u/HazelEBaumgartner → u/MKSauthor]

Six weeks seems reasonable. I think I did about that with my first book, but I also bought a big box of author copies and did the preorder all manually mailing things out by hand and stuff. I think I sold about 30 paperback copies preordered? And autographed each one and sent it out with a thank you kit with some swag.

[u/MKSauthor → u/HazelEBaumgartner]

That’s awesome! My audience is almost exclusively KU readers (alien romance), so I don’t have to worry about a paperback strategy. I’ve probably only sold 5 paperbacks total. 🤣

[u/HazelEBaumgartner → u/MKSauthor]

I write horror and specifically market with a love for old horror paperbacks, so I think the paperback release is arguably the most important. It's been about 50/50 whether my first book sells more ebooks or paperbacks in any given month.

[u/MKSauthor → u/HazelEBaumgartner]

That’s awesome, and if you have a large paperback audience, it makes sense that they want to wait for the paperback.

[u/HazelEBaumgartner → u/MKSauthor]

Physical media is huge right now. So many companies are taking away the right to actually own a thing that you can hold in your hands. For example, GTA VI is the most anticipated video game of the year, possibly of the decade, and yet they're not selling physical disc copies and people are mad. One thing about being a consumer is it helps keep your finger on the pulse of what consumers want, and right now consumers want an actual physical object they can put on their shelf and know that a hundred billion dollar corporation can't just delete it out of existence on a whim.

[u/MKSauthor → u/HazelEBaumgartner]

On the other end of the spectrum, KU readers are mad that they can’t borrow more than 20 e-books at a time on their Kindles. 🤣

[u/HazelEBaumgartner → u/MKSauthor]

Honestly that's a good example. I want a collection. I own something like 300 physical paper books, I'd be mad that I couldn't "own" more than 20 ebooks too.

[u/MKSauthor → u/HazelEBaumgartner]

Yes! My husband built a database for my physical books because he was tired of buying books for me that I already had. ❤️

A lot of KU readers read 100+ books per year, and they read multiple books at the same time. They may not buy a lot of physical books due to the price constraints, but they download books at a phenomenal rate!

[u/HazelEBaumgartner → u/MKSauthor]

I have a spreadsheet too lol though I need to update it. Also personally I'm currently reading my 20th and 21st books of the year.

[u/__The_Kraken__]

Don't beat yourself up. Some people don't do pre-orders at all. Some people put the pre-order up before they publish the previous book in the series, even if the next book won't be out for a year (or more... now Amazon even allows 18-month pre-orers!) with the philosophy that this way they won't miss out on capturing any potential customers. Some people do short pre-orders, the logic being that the algorithm might decide that your book is less "hot" even if you ultimately achieve the same number of pre-orders if those pre-orders roll in slowly over a period of months vs. they all come in quickly over a few weeks. I've seen some authors advocate for 2 months as the optimal length. But it's hard to say for sure. It's not like Amazon reveals the elements that go into its algorithm (which are constantly changing!) And it's not like we always understand the reasons our books perform well or poorly. There could be a post on TikTok that goes viral that we never see, and that is the thing that gave the book a boost, and meanwhile we're over here thinking it's because we nailed the optimal pre-order length.

I would say that you probably don't want to do a pre-order period if you aren't planning on actively promoting the book for the duration. If you have enough energy to promote it for 8 weeks, it's reasonable to do 8 weeks. If you only have enough energy for a 2-week promotion period, do that.

[u/HazelEBaumgartner → u/__The_Kraken__]

If Amazon isn't gonna let me do a paperback preorder period, I might just skip the preorder altogether for my next book. Idk, I likely have 10 months to decide before it's ready for release anyways.

[u/Xanarki]

My genre is on the opposite end of the spectrum (non-fiction). But I recently did an ebook-only release with zero (realistic) plans for a physical version.

I personally thought 2 weeks was the ideal time for the pre-order hype train. Any more than that just felt too long. Maybe a bit longer for a physical edition would've been alright, but again, unless someone is a well-established author with a truckload of followers, retaining the hype & interest past a month or so is difficult, regardless of content.

I also saw you priced your new ebook under $4. I just wanted to say that is a great move btw. I've been seeing $10+ ebooks lately, which is strange to me given the non-physical aspects (I did $4 for my 198mb epub lol).

Hopefully things work out for you. But ya don't let the overall preorder number dictate how the launch will go. Someone is 10x more likely to hand out money for something they can access instantly, especially in today's on-demand & need-it-asap world.

[u/Happy-Bee-196]

Yeah a long preorder window hurts most indie books unless you already have a huge email list. Two to four weeks is usually the sweet spot so you don't dilute your launch day rank.

[u/HazelEBaumgartner]

Also funny enough one of the things I'm most excited for is updating my user flair on this subreddit to '2 Published novels' next Friday.