KDP rolls out Pre-Orders for eBooks
Amazon has just announced that they are rolling out a “Pre-Order” capability for their Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors.
But you might be asking, why would we be interested in that?
There are two possible ways in which this could be a great new tool in the Indie Writers toolbox.
First, you can build excitement and anticipation in your audience. Having the ability to say that the book is not yet ready, but that they can order it now will give you a great opportunity to engage your audience, and engagement is everything. By setting a pre-order option, you can let people know the book is on its way on your website, blog, your Amazon author page, Goodreads, etc.
Secondly, you can “register” for this up to 90 days before publication date. That means that you can start this promotion whilst the final copyediting and proofreading are going on. Any pre-orders you get will count towards your sales ranking, and thus help others find your book when it is released.
To be eligible, the book has to be a new KDP title, and you can only have up to 10 books in the pre-order category at any one time. Before Amazon will accept the book for pre-order, you need to download it in at least draft form, and the normal pre-release checks are made before the book is listed. We are assured that this draft book will not be viewable by the buyers, but Amazon clearly want to make sure that the book exists before listing it.
CONCLUSION
Overall I think this will be a useful addition to the Indie Writers promotional activity. It will not take the place of anything we are currently doing, but I like the fact that we can now offer this pre-order facility when we are engaging our audience in the run-up to publication.