For what it's worth, my marketing person at Harper told me not to bother with pre-orders because they're impossible for most debut authors. (And I'm right there with you with the humiliation of emailing everyone you know! It's the WORST but unfortunately it does actually help out a lot with awareness. I don't think I'll do it for my second book either, though.)
Thanks for the thoughts, Sarah. I did wonder -- where does this pressure to generate preorders come from? It's not like S&S told me I needed to get a certain amount. But all the authors I know are trying to get preorders. That's so great your marketing person told you to not bother with it...
I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to do stuff like this because so much of the publishing process feels so far out of our control. I think it might help to just accept this - advocating for your book does help but not nearly as much as bookstore sales reps getting behind it, which isn't something we have any power over at all.
For what it's worth, my marketing person at Harper told me not to bother with pre-orders because they're impossible for most debut authors. (And I'm right there with you with the humiliation of emailing everyone you know! It's the WORST but unfortunately it does actually help out a lot with awareness. I don't think I'll do it for my second book either, though.)
Thanks for the thoughts, Sarah. I did wonder -- where does this pressure to generate preorders come from? It's not like S&S told me I needed to get a certain amount. But all the authors I know are trying to get preorders. That's so great your marketing person told you to not bother with it...
I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to do stuff like this because so much of the publishing process feels so far out of our control. I think it might help to just accept this - advocating for your book does help but not nearly as much as bookstore sales reps getting behind it, which isn't something we have any power over at all.