What's the deal with pre-orders?

An exploration for authors, small biz owners, and creatives

My primary job for the next two months is to get as many people to pre-order the Inner Workout book as possible.

The publishing industry understands the value of pre-orders, but I don’t think creatives and small business owners take full advantage of pre-selling even though they stand to benefit most from putting pre-orders in place.

Today’s report is a Q+A filled with questions I’ve received—and questions I wish I’d received—about pre-orders. This isn’t just for authors. I get into the weeds of how business owners and creatives can implement pre-orders, too.

There’s something for everyone. Make sure you read til the end because I definitely got a little heated. 🥵

What is a pre-order?

We’re used to buying products and receiving them almost immediately. When we pre-order, we make a purchase knowing we won’t receive the product for weeks, months, or even years.

Why should creatives and business owners use pre-orders?

In most cases, you’re using a pre-order to gauge interest, get capital, or both.

Gauging interest

Pre-orders are a low-cost way to vet an idea before sinking a bunch of resources into it. People share an idealized version of themselves in customer discovery interviews and in surveys. In interviews, they tell you what they think you want to hear. In surveys, they often answer based on who they’d like to be. Someone wants to be the type of person who goes to art galleries every weekend or who meditates daily, and that can skew how they respond.

But you know what always speaks the truth? Cash money.

There’s a big difference between saying you’d like to attend a retreat and making a down payment, between thinking a product is innovative and punching in your credit card details to pre-order it.

Pre-orders are valuable indicators of interest.

Getting capital

Pre-orders are also an underutilized tool for getting funds in the door to make a project possible. Larger companies have entire research + development teams and budgets, but smaller players don’t have that luxury. There are upfront costs involved in bringing an offering into the world, whether you’re producing a documentary or manufacturing a product.

When you pre-sell, your customers also act as micro-investors. They fund at least part of your your production costs while validating the market for the idea.

In some cases, pre-order capital can even result in a lower price for the customer. Suppliers have order minimums, but the price goes down as you increase the number units ordered. I received so many orders through the Instead Kickstarter campaign that I was able to up my order quantity and pass on the savings to the consumer.

What companies use pre-orders well?

LastObject launches its eco-friendly products on Kickstarter before seeking broader distribution. (There’s a whole other conversation to be had about how pre-orders can help reduce waste.) They’ve done eight Kickstarters to date. Telfar’s Bag Security pre-order program sells out in minutes.

What tools can I use to pre-sell?

Pre-selling can be as simple as a Google form and a Paypal link or as complex as a multi-week long Kickstarter campaign. If you’re specifically interested in crowdfunding, I wrote an e-book that walks you step-by-step through the process I used for the Instead campaign.

What are the risks of pre-selling an offering?

I think all the risks can be summed up in the statement: You don’t know what you don’t know. Prototyping could be more expensive than you budgeted for. Your production timeline could shift due to unforeseen circumstances. The best advice I can offer is to do the best you can with what you do know. Triple check your numbers. Add more buffer than you think you need. It’s better to surprise and delight than to have to apologize for a delay.

What’s the biggest benefit of pre-selling?

Pre-orders offer peace of mind. You know people want what you’re selling, and you have some money to get it off the ground.

Let’s switch gears to talk about pre-orders for authors. If you’ve been an an author’s orbit, they’ve asked you to pre-order their book.

Why do authors ask people to pre-order their book?

As I mentioned in a previous report, the publishing industry is a numbers game. Numbers talk.

If you want to get on a bestseller list, you need to sell at least 7,000 books in a week. Pre-orders all count as sales for the first week, so it’s like giving yourself a running head start.

I’ve opted for the more realistic goal of Inner Workout being a book that has legs. I don’t want it to be a flash in the pan. I want it to be a resource that people return to and refer others to over time.

I’m not chasing the bestseller list, but I’m still asking you to pre-order my book. Why?

Pre-orders tell people in the industry, including my publisher, that people want this book. Book Riot said it best,

“When you preorder a book, it’s a clear message to the publisher that there is demand for that author’s work, that series, and those characters. To an even greater degree, however, preorders can send a message that has political resonance. When preorders go up for books that support trans visibility, queer characters, racial diversity, and representation, it forces publishers to assess the market thusly.”

I’m gonna keep it one hundred. I know of several Black women who got book deals after summer 2020 as industries, publishing included, examined their own bias. And like many efforts sparked by George Floyd’s death, enthusiasm wanes when equity is no longer front page news.

Pre-orders show the publishers that their decision wasn’t just a trendy box to check. Publishing Black women authors is a sound business decision.

Wanna show the industry there’s a market for books in the wellness, self-help, and personal development space written by people who look like me?

It starts with a pre-order.

P.S. If you’d like to help me spread the word about the book, let me know! I’ll officially drop information about the launch team in a couple of weeks.