I’m often asked by authors if it makes sense to hold a pre-sale and in most cases 
the answer is a resounding YES. My latest book (Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business) will be released in February, but the pre-sale went live last week–and let me tell you how fun it is to watch sales roll in immediately!
Selling your book before it is in print gives you the opportunity to begin building buzz and anticipation, plus you will have an audience of readers primed and ready to post reviews and tell their friends when your book is available. Hosting a pre-sale is also a way to get a jump start on generating revenues. Some authors use programs like Kickstarter.com to generate funding for a book project before it is even written!
How to Set Up the Pre-Sale for Your Book
1. Create a sales page on your website for the book and make sure it rocks! Include a compelling description, cover image, and testimonials if you have them.
2. Consider offing a bonus for book buyers. There are many ways you can approach this. You can reach out to others and ask them to provide reports and ebooks to offer as a bonus, or you can dig in to your own archives and find materials to give away. I personally like to use my own stuff and compiled a series of resources and templates to give away with my book.
3. Offer an exclusive ebook edition. Since my book won’t be out for another month, I decided to give a PDF version of the entire manuscript to all buyers. This gives them the benefit of being able to read it before everyone else.
4. Set reasonable expectations for shipping. The last thing you want to do is over-promise and under-deliver so let buyers know what your most realistic shipping date will be and add some extra time just in case.
5. Add a shopping cart button. It is critically important to make the buying process as easy as possible. If you ask people to call or email you to make a purchase, I can guarantee you will miss out on sales. People have short attention spans and if it takes an extra step, they will move on. All you need is a Paypal shopping cart button or something similar (1shoppingcart.com or e-junkie.com are also good options).
5. Start promoting the release to your networks! Send announcements out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Write about it in your blog. Send out an email announcement. Share the news with online groups that you belong to. If you want your readers to create buzz, you have to get it started!
Totally agree – pre-sales make a lot of sense both for publicity and sales. Do you know if you have the ability to pre-sell through KDP on Amazon?
I haven’t seen Amazon offer pre-sales for ebooks, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask!
We’re in the midst of a pre-sell of our historical and nostalgic book about the baby boomers. Title is Once Upon Our Times (Because Life Isn’t A Fairy Tale) 65 Years Growing Up Baby Boomer. While my parents told me nothing is impossible, it’s a complex task to be completing the writing to send it to editor, book designer and then printer as we’re completely self-publishing and self-funded through pre-orders. We constantly get comments that people can’t wait for the book to come out…but we need a commitment now from about 500 orders, an Investor, an Investment Club or an inheritance. Our website is http://www.onceuponourtimes.com and we are giving some proceeds to 2 charities; have a lower pre-publication price, and do write e-mail blasts to friends. Any suggestions?
The harsh reality of book publishing is that no matter who publishes your book–whether you do it yourself or a big publisher takes it on–you need to build an audience of buyers. I’m almost inclined to suggest that you wait to publish the book until you’ve built a following. If it’s hard to pre-sale now, it’s not going to get easier until you get buyers on your side. Ideally you want to tap into the baby boomer community and build a presence there. Could you start a website with resources? Start a group on Facebook or LinkedIn? These are some considerations as you begin this journey.
One other option: have you considered a crowd-funding source like http://kickstarter.com? That might be a way to increase your funding options. Regardless, you still need to build that audience. We have quite a few articles here on the blog that can help. Best of luck to you!
Very informative.
I liked all the ideas relating to the virtues and benefits fo pre selling.
The only observation I would make regarding the release fo the PDF version of the book upon payment, and in advance of the the paper based version, is this. It may get pirated. It does happen in certain markets. The trade begins to discount the price even before it is launched. A word of caution may be in order.
Instead of giving away the PDF version, I may provide a link to my server where they may view the book but not download it or print it. It is password protected and permits the genuine buyer to read it on their desktop or ipad. If a kindle version is released in advance, that is a different matter though.
I would greatly appreciate knowing if you have an alternate or better suggestion to offer.
Since my own first book is due for launch in jan 2013, I find this blogpost very fascinating and insightful
Thank you
Hi Shekar, In my experience piracy is not a pervasive issue. However, if you want a more secure way of giving your ebook away, then distribute it through Smashwords and generate a coupon for 100% off. That should do the trick! Though it will also create some extra steps for your customers… Good luck!
So…How do I process the orders I receive in advance? I get that I can mail out the hard copies, but do I email pdfs (I would bundle with another title and discount the pdf)