You may have heard the great news that our pre-orders are now available to purchase from our shop! Hurrah! But what IS a pre-order? Why do many indie publishers and publishing houses alike launch their titles with pre-orders?
A pre-order is the advance listing and purchase of a book before it is printed to ensure that you get your copy before they sell out. There are many advantages to pre-orders and reasons why presses make them available.
Bagsy!
Primarily, pre-ordering your copy ensures that you will get yours before they sell out! It’s the perfect way to ‘bagsy’ your book, as indie publishers particularly might only purchase small runs at a time, and so there may be a bit of a queue to beat!
Stock.
Pre-orders allow publishers to organise what stock they have, what packaging will be required, and postage costs. It is essential to be organised in order to avoid any surprise costs, and also reduces the risk of running out of stock at vital moments!
Future planning.
Knowing how many books of the first run are already spoken for will allow a press to plan ahead to think about future runs. If a book is proving particularly popular, it might influence how many future runs to budget for!
Marketing.
The small window before a book is officially printed is valuable marketing time. It allows publishers an opportunity to celebrate the book and raise awareness of its release ahead of time. Pre-orders can also alert retailers and consumers that they should pay attention to your book.
Cash Flow.
In the case of Fawn Press as a brand new publisher, we could pay for the printing of the books after we generated income from pre-orders, preventing us from going into minus figures!
Bestseller lists.
Pre-orders contribute to first day purchases, causing a spike on the day one of it being released.
If you’d like to bagsy your copy of our debut publication “Elements: Natural & The Supernatural” and help support an indie press with their debut into the publishing world, please do consider placing a preorder from our SHOP ahead of its release Monday 7th December!