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When I accidentally set a three-month preorder campaign for Humans Don’t Have Horns, I was devastated.
It was my first time publishing a book, and I didn’t realize that once I chose the release date, the eBook preorder would go live immediately. Three months felt like an eternity. I was very sure that the second time around, I would do things differently.
For Crowns Don’t Make Queens, I wanted a one-month preorder campaign.
Now that the launch is over, I can confidently say that I was wrong.
First, Let’s Put the Amazon Algorithm Aside
If your main goal is to rank as high as possible on launch day—to reach the Top 100, or even higher, in your Amazon categories—it is possible that a short preorder campaign is better for the algorithm.
I’m not even sure that it is. But I’m also no longer convinced that this should be the most important consideration.
I do believe preorder campaigns are important, despite the advice I received from a famous author before publishing my first book. But if you don’t already have a large following, I don’t think your main goal should be beating the algorithm.
That can be a very good strategy for an author who already has a big audience, or who can successfully engage hundreds of people to preorder. And when I say hundreds, I mean hundreds who will actually buy the book, not hundreds of people you can ask. Those are two very different things.
So, for the purpose of this post, I’m putting the algorithm aside.
Three Months Versus One Month
I had more preorders for my first book than I did for my second.
That happened even though my following is bigger now. I now have readers who loved the first book, repost my content, tell me they are waiting for the next book, and preorder it. I feel incredibly blessed and grateful for every one of them.
But having only one month to make the preorder ask wasn’t nearly as effective as having three months.
Did the shorter campaign improve my Amazon ranking? Also no.
Both books reached approximately the same ranking in my best-performing category: somewhere around #200. It’s not bad, but not high enough to show off.
But that is still not the biggest reason I would choose a longer campaign next time.
The $0.99 Preorder Experiment
For my first preorder campaign, I priced the eBook at $3.99. But I kept seeing authors advise setting the preorder price at $0.99. The idea is to make the purchase an easier ask, collect more preorders, and hopefully benefit from the algorithm.
So this time, I priced it at $0.99. I didn’t like doing it because a $0.99 eBook earns a 30% royalty instead of 70%. It annoyed me to give Amazon another 40%.
But I thought the lower price might help me reach more readers. Yet, I don’t think it really made a difference.
Obviously, every author has a different audience, and different strategies work for different people. But based on my own experience, I would say: keep the higher royalty. You are making so little from each book anyway.
The Real Reason I Needed More Time
The one-month preorder campaign wasn’t entirely strategic. I had a very long delay with my cover, and it was important to me not to create a gap of more than one year between the first two books in the Crown of Blood and Magic trilogy.
If you have the time, I would recommend giving yourself two or three months of pre-order.
The biggest reason is that Amazon is not reliable. Sometimes everything works beautifully. Sometimes, as happened to me during this launch, it does not.
This time, Amazon had major problems printing author copies.
Once ordering finally became available, the backlog was so large that the estimated arrival time was about a month. I couldn’t wait that long because I needed the books for my influencer campaign.
I paid about three times more to print copies through another platform so I could receive them sooner. Of course, those copies did not print correctly.
I don’t think the printing platform was the problem. I believe it was related to the cover design. But regardless of whose fault it was, the result was the same: more delays.
Most of my influencers received their PR boxes only on launch day.
Some of them were incredibly sweet and hurried to create unboxing videos that same day, and I am so grateful to them. But it was still less effective than giving them enough time to receive the package, read the book, and create their content before launch.
I also had trouble getting the book to appear correctly in international markets. Some of you amazingly helped me figure out where the preorder was working and where it wasn’t.
I had so many technical issues that I felt like I spent all my time talking to KDP support instead of marketing my book.
This might not happen to you. It didn’t happen during my first launch. But publishing always seems to become a race against time, and a longer preorder period gives you room for the things you cannot predict.
Most importantly, it gives you time to repeat yourself.
People usually do not respond to the first ask. They need reminders. They need to see the book more than once. They might be interested the first time and forget to preorder until it appears in front of them a third or fourth time.
And Then There Is Social Media
Last year, my life was incredibly chaotic. We were renovating our house while I was preparing to publish my debut novel.
But this year, I felt more burned out by social media. I challenged myself to post every day for one month, and I did it. But it’s like reinventing myself every single day.
Still, I have to admit that I can see the difference in my sales.
My books and formats are available in different places, which means the information is split across different dashboards. But one of the easiest places for me to see social media’s effect is Kindle Unlimited. When my social media content reaches more people, my page reads usually rise.
I don’t always know which specific post convinced someone to start reading. But I can see that showing up consistently does matter.
So Social Media sucks but is effective.
One More Tip: Use Amazon Associates Links
Another tip I have is to create Amazon Associates links for your own books.
I understand why this can feel a little icky. But you have to remember that you are making a very small amount of money from every book you sell. The exact amount varies by platform and format, but every cent counts.
In a slightly absurd turn of events, the Amazon Associates links to my books have earned me almost as much as the book sales themselves.
It is an easy addition. It doesn’t cost you anything, and you don’t need to promote products you don’t believe in. You are already promoting your own book. You might as well use an affiliate link. Just remember to include the required affiliate disclosure.
You can read more about my Amazon insights here
Some of the links I share will be affiliate links. I’ll still only recommend books I genuinely loved (honest reviews, always). If you buy through one of my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
