The Amazon pre-order option for KDP authors (Kindle Direct Publishing has really helped level the playing field between traditionally published authors and those who have self-published through KDP.
Let’s look at how this can benefit your Amazon book promotion!
On Amazon’s pre-order information page they say it’s a great strategy to start building buzz, and it is, but it takes some work. This is not a “click publish and they will come” opportunity.
So I encourage you to read up on this as much as possible to ensure you understand your role as the author – but I’d also love for you to contact me about collaboration, because there’s a lot I can do to help you really make the most of your Amazon book promotion pre-order, and it never hurts to know what your options are!
Here’s a break down of the biggest benefits:
For the first time author:
It’s so exciting to see your book up on Amazon, right? Now is the time to be smart about your promotion efforts at this point.
If you’re a first time author with an established platform for another reason, if the book is tied to your business or area of expertise, you have solid social media accounts and a website that’s converting for you, with a mailing list, by all means start your Amazon book promotion as soon as the book is up for pre-order.
Here’s my list of 13 strategies you can start working on ASAP.
If you’re a first time author and you don’t have a platform yet, you have fewer resources to tap into for advanced promotion so while I’ll definitely encourage you to check out the 13 strategies above, stick to ones that just cost your sweat equity and don’t dip into your budget. While pre-publication promotion can be lucrative, it’s tougher when you’re unknown, so finding the balance between doing something, and investing too much too soon, is key.
You can also optimize your Author Central page during your pre-order, and start playing with categories and keywords to see what spikes the book and what does not, so you’ll be ready to go on launch day.
For the already published author:
If you have a book out there (or several), and you’ve built a mailing list of fans, then a pre-order is a great thing to do to build excitement for your upcoming book, and be sure you’ve read my tips on smarter social media book marketing to support this, because pre-order book promotion is great inspiration for social content!
I still think most of your book promotion budget should be reserved for when the book is available on Amazon for purchase, but again, investing in some sweat equity is perfect for pre-publication.
Keeping their interest:
Regardless of the category you’re in, don’t stretch the pre-order time out to the full 90 days that Amazon allows.
90 days is a long time to keep people’s interest up, it’s a long time to wait for their book! It also puts a lot of pressure on you to keep your book promotion front and center for the entire time, because exposure and pre-order go hand in hand, you can’t start your Amazon book promotion and then let it fizzle before the release.
It’s all or nothing.
So I’d recommend a month at most. If you’re prepared, 2 weeks is a great amount of time to go out hard and keep the momentum up. If you haven’t downloaded our free book promotion planner, now is a great time.
The other thing you need to remember is that you have to hit the deadline you assign to the pre-order because once you select it you can’t go back. So pick a date that you know you can hit.
Getting ready for reviews:
When deciding on your pre-order timing, keep in mind readers can’t review a pre-order book.
You can work around this by not extending your Amazon book promotion for too long. Again, two weeks is a fair amount of time, and just remember to keep your social and email list active with review reminders on regular intervals after the release.
But a great opportunity for early reviews is Goodreads, because you can push for pre-order reviews there and you should be getting Goodreads savvy anyhow.
Pricing your pre-order:
Keep your pricing low – even if you plan on raising it later.
You’re competing with millions of titles on Amazon and your book isn’t ready (yet) so the immediacy isn’t there. If you want to entice an impulse buy, keep the pricing lower at first, and once the book is live you can always raise it.
I wrote a piece on pricing if this is getting overwhelming.
Building your Amazon list:
Another great reason to put your book up for pre-order is the chance to build your list.
The Follow option on your Author Central page is essentially Amazon’s way of letting you build your following and create a list on Amazon. No, you don’t get access to this list, but Amazon makes up for it by sending emails to your followers on your behalf, any time you list a book for pre-order AND when a book releases.
This is book promotion gold!
So how do you build your Follow list? Definitely ask your current network to follow you, push it on your website, to your email list, and on social. You can also run giveaways for products on Amazon and require entrants to follow you in exchange for an opportunity to win. To make this work you want to be sure and choose items that make a lot of sense for your reader market.
If you haven’t done a reader profile yet, download my free brainstorm. And once that’s done, make a short list of products that are slam-dunks for those people, and set up a few giveaways.
So next time you have a book release coming up, give pre-order a try and take your Amazon book promotion up a level. Just be mindful of how much of your promotional sweat equity and dollars you spend on pre-order, because book promotion is a marathon, not a sprint, and you’ll have to keep the momentum up long after your book is released.
I’d love for you to share with your network and have put together these tweets for you!
Click to Tweet: Go all-in with a pre-order using these next level book marketing strategies from @bookgal to sell more books this year. #bookmarketing #sellmorebooks https://wp.me/p6TMt8-6RJ
Click to Tweet: Amazon’s pre-order levels the playing field, and these tips from @bookgal give you the home team advantage to sell more books in 2019. #bookmarketing #sellmorebooks https://wp.me/p6TMt8-6RJ
How is your Amazon book promotion going? Please let me know how in the comments!
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