I'm Throwing In the Preorder Towel
In Which We Discuss Preorder Goodies and How They Might Not Be Worth It 🤷🏼♀️
Like any good cruise ship should, the Ventorship has a gift shop. I’m fairly certain we’ve brought it up before, seeing as how it’s full of your books. It also has a hearty section of preorder goodies, custom trinkets and gifts tailored for a book, designed to get people to order a novel early so 1) publishers can know how much interest there is for a book and can adjust printings accordingly, and 2) a book stands a greater chance of hitting a bestseller list since preorders count toward first week sales; the more preorder sales there are, the greater the chance that puppy’s gonna list.
I’m lucky enough to have two novels coming out this year (THE MAGIC YOU MAKE—the conclusion to my gay elf fantasy duology; and FLOPPING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND, my dual POV gay YA Christmas romance), and per usual when I’m a few months out from publication, I get to thinking about preorder goodies. What little knick knacks could I make to get people pumped for the book? Usually it’s some combination of an exclusive art print, a custom metal bookmark, and a bookplate. Together, these things cost me a couple thousand dollars I’ve saved from my advance, money I was lucky enough to be able to set aside for marketing purposes. I’ve had good success with these preorder campaigns in the past. For JAY’S GAY AGENDA, published in 2021, I had around 250 people fill out a Google form with proof of preorder to receive a gift bundle of an art print of Jay and Albert illustrated by the genius Ricardo Bessa, plus a custom Jay’s Gay Agenda pen, and a signed bookplate. One year later when OUT OF THE BLUE came out, I again did a Ricardo Bessa print of the cover, a merfin metal bookmark, and a signed bookplate that got 450 people who filled out the preorder goodies form.
But then cut to last year when I had RILEY WEAVER NEEDS A DATE TO THE GAYBUTANTE BALL arrive and I thought I’d go even bigger than before. I designed custom Gaybutante Society hats and a Gaybutante Society Membership Card/bookmark for anybody who preordered within the US. I thought for sure with custom memorabilia that could get to readers with no shipping costs on their end, I’d get more folks than ever before to preorder and fill out that goodies form. I was delulu, folks.
49 people filled it out.
When THE SPELLS WE CAST came along later that year, Disney created prints of the cover and bookplates, and I made a custom bookmark, and again, high-40s for preorder takers.
I was and still am so extremely grateful for every single sale of any of my books, whether preordered or not, but one thing was becoming increasingly clear:
People just weren’t feeling my goodies anymore.
So as I set upon the journey to figure out what to do for my releases this year, I posted this poll to Threads:
Now, that 50-50 could seem promising! There are readers out there who want goodies, right? Right! Or at least people who click on liking preorder goodies in an internet poll. But upon reading the comments, all but one were from authors expressing how their preorder campaigns weren’t receiving the same amount of traction as before either, or from readers giving varying explanations for why preorder goodies just aren’t enough of an enticement to spend their hard-earned cash before a book comes out. (But a massive thank you to the one person who commented they want anything I’d make including the book; you made my heart soar! As in fly, not hurt in the bad way!)
Reasons why preorder goodies were no longer enticing included:
Preorder incentive fatigue seeing as how so many of us jumped on the goodie bandwagon in the late 20-teens/early 2020s and it was time to Marie Kondo all the stickers/bookmarks/prints/etc. that no longer sparked joy.
No goody could sway a new-to-you reader to preorder your book because they don’t know who you are yet and even if they’re getting an art print, that’s not worth the $19.99 to spend on a book not knowing if they’re going to like it. Folks in this camp often commented that the only way a goody could entice them was if they already knew of the author/the book and were going to order the book anyway.
People wanting to pare back on book spending and reserve those dollars only for their Ultimate Favorite Books that they can first find for free at the library.
Not liking the style or design of goodies whether they’re an art print/button/sticker/bookmark/etc.
Wanting to find books at their own pace or at the whims of their reading desires as opposed to feeling like they have to buy a book right this minute not knowing if they’re going to be in the mood to read the type of book you’ve published when it finally comes out.
Retailer restrictions (as in, where you have to buy from in order to get the preorder goodies) making it so that readers sometimes get the book later than if they just waited until release week and picked it up at the retailer of their choice.
All these reactions and more are so valid. There are so many books out there and money is tight and the state of the world really leaves way more to worry about right now than ordering a book before it’s even out.
But! What about that 50% who said they like goodies! Well, because they weren’t vocal at all (minus our one amazing pro-preorderer) combined with the multiple comments from authors giving anecdotal evidence of their preorder campaigns doing little to nothing, I’d say that it’s more that the pro-50% likes the idea of preorder goodies and probably fully intends to order early and truly does love to support authors, but (very understandably so) life gets in the way. That’s not a slight on them in the…slightest. These readers most likely will get around to buying your book, and that’s ultimately the goal here, regardless of when it’s purchased! But when we are considering how much time and money to spend on creating gifts specifically with the intention of driving people to buy our book early in order to help boost first week sales, my new answer to myself is…none.
While all the above data was swaying me toward that decision, the true deciding factor was when one commenter with a background in book marketing kindly entered the Thread to say in their years behind the scenes, preorder campaigns did nothing to noticeably boost sales unless those campaigns were for series or authors who were already huge. I’d also venture to guess that once you are at that big of a level, it’s rarely even the author anymore who is making the preorder goodies, but the publisher instead. Since I don’t fall into that huge status, it’s just not worth the effort and dollars and desperation (I’ve always said the title of my memoir will someday be A Little Bit Desperate…(Okay, A Lot) but that’s a subject for a different post).
I am in no way trying to tell you never to make preorder goodies again. I’m just giving some reader opinions and real world experiences from currently publishing authors to help inform your decision if you’re on the fence on whether to goodie or not to goodie. (Also remember this poll did not encapsulate every single reader’s take, was most likely only seen by folks who follow me or follow others that follow me, and was only open for 24 hours, so I would in no way classify it as scientific) Sometimes it’s fun to make a small batch of things that, sure, you can give away for preorders, but will most likely just bring you a smile when you see them, serving as a reminder that you actually wrote a book dammit, and that’s pretty great! Other times it’s more rewarding to make swag with the intention of giving it to readers at festivals and in-person events to see their grateful reactions in real time. You get to decide what’s right for you, not some long-winded gas bag who’s helming a metaphorical ship for writers!
That’s all for today! I’m off to join you on the lido deck now that I don’t have to take all that time figuring out preorder stuff 🍹
-JJ
What about you, fellow author-passengers? Any preorder goody anecdotes, successful or otherwise? Feel free to include them in the comments, or if you’d like to remain anonymous, email me your thoughts at heyjasonjune@gmail.com and I’ll include them below.
If you’d like to vent about anything author/writing related, write to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com with the subject: VENTORSHIP. I’ll give you my take in a post, and we’ll crowdsource author opinions in the comments. You’ll remain anonymous, and any haters will be thrown overboard. Ultimately, I think you’re going to be buoyed up by author love and support as we realize we really are all in the same boat 🛳️
I'm happy to sign bookplates if my publisher wants to run them (which they've done two out of three times), but yeah, I think Preorder Fatigue is real and ultimately we all end up spending more on swag than those orders even bring in. I'm always happy to send a bookmark and sign a bookplate for someone who preorders, since I always have those on hand anyway, but I shan't be buying new stuff.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I'm debuting this year, and it is hard not to feel pressure to do ALL the things. I like the idea of having something to give kids in person because that feels more fun. So I think I'm going to make some stickers since they aren't expensive and I'm excited about them (they are designed like those friendship bracelets with two halves of a heart but in sticker form!), but not worry about organizing a huge preorder campaign. What a relief! Anyway, thanks for your newsletter and for being amazing :)