THE BENEFITS OF PRE-ORDERS BEFORE RELEASE

Every author knows what a great feeling it is to publish your first book.  Even when publishing additional books, it's still a great feeling of accomplishment.  However, once any book is published, it's then time for an author to turn their attention to marketing the book.  This is where it can get a little tricky.

Jumping around on social media

Most authors I know are generally shy, camera shy, quiet, reserved, or not comfortable jumping around on social media to create buzz about their book.  I know exactly how they feel.

Once you do focus on book marketing, every author is always looking for book events, holidays, new ideas, or reasons to create a marketing campaign around.  By opting to list the book as a pre-order, this becomes an event in the life cycle of the book.  It's an event that can cover one month of time and present several opportunities to talk about it as a marketing approach.  It can also be included as a pre-order in an author's weekly or monthly newsletter.

Another advantage of a pre-order on Amazon, you can list the price higher than it will be once it is released.  While at this price on pre-order, any Advanced Reader Campaign will be seen as a better deal to get for free in exchange for a review when the book is released.  Lowering prices after a product loses it's shiny and new status is very common in the world of marketing.

By setting the Release date a month away -- or more,  you can offer a free download on giveaway websites like Bookfunnel or StoryOrigin.  Then after the release, you can email these readers and ask for a review.

THE BENEFITS OF PRE-ORDERS ON THE DAY OF RELEASE:

Amazon will send an email around to people who are following you on your author page.  I have included a picture of the upper email so you can see it.

Another  marketing promotion can revolve around an invitation to follow you on Amazon or AuthorCentral.  You can include this invitation when you announce your Pre-Order or you can even do this campaign before your book is up for pre-order.  Those more-seasoned authors will know what I mean by creating opportunities to post about your book that is a slightly different angle than here's my book with a link to purchase it.  That marketing approach gets old very fast.

The more followers you accumulate, the broader the pre-order and new release campaign will get.   I actually found the Amazon count for my followers which I was shocked to see.  If I had to guess how many I had before seeing this number, I would have guessed maybe 40 -- with my eyes closed and fingers crossed.  I missed out on this hidden marketing opportunity for the first years of my self-publishing and marketing efforts, so learn from my mistake!

ANOTHER MARKETING EFFORT TO INCLUDE INSIDE THE BOOK:

I use a Note to Reader page at the back of all of my books.  On this page, I thank the reader for choosing my book to read and also a link to a questionnaire if they want to give me additional feedback.  I also include my email in case anyone wants to contact me about the book or for any other reason.

I will be adding a request to follow me on Amazon with a link to my author page, so readers can follow me if they choose to.

TIP FOR THE NEWBIES:  When you are scrounging around for another reason to build a marketing campaign around, take a screen shot of your author page and the follow button, with a post about following you to hear about your upcoming book releases.  This can be used over and over again right before you get ready to release a new book.

The target of Amazon's email is the author's followers.  Everything else involved in who Amazon chooses to notify about the release of your book is proprietary, so no one can say.  There is more marketing tip for you as the author that I go into below.

ANOTHER FREEBIE FROM AMAZON:

Above is another screen shot from the email about my new release.  This shows three other authors that Amazon includes in an Customers also bought items by with similar authors' names.  This information is a HUGE giveaway to you as an author.  This information comes from the Amazon algorithms and you can be sure these are the best authors that match your new release.

I would suggest that you follow these authors to see if you can learn anything from how they market to their readers using Amazon.  I have followed my three authors and I'll make another blog post if I find any other ways to use this feature at Amazon.

ONE MORE SLIGHTLY-OFF-TOPIC TIP:  The names of these similar authors can be valuable when running Amazon ads.  I use a tool called Publisher Rocket, which is a paid tool, and they offer this kind of information.  With a new release, Amazon is giving you this information for free!

I hope this helps new and seasoned authors alike.  Check back to my website often as I do post weekly.

 

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