In what will be a very welcome move by Amazon, KDP authors have begun reporting that a pre-order option now appears on their dashboards for new e-books. This has been one of the biggest requests from independent authors using the online retailer’s self-publishing platform. Until now pre-ordering of e-books was only a facility available to big publishers and leading best-selling authors.
One advantage of pre-order is that you can start promoting your book before launch to help raise awareness. You can promote your book’s pre-order page on Author Central, Goodreads, your own site, and elsewhere. Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising even before your book is released, which can help more readers discover your book.
How it works
You’ll list your book as you would with any other KDP book. When you’re adding a new book, on Step 4, “Select Your Book Release Option,” you will choose “Make my book available for pre-order” and set a date in the future. That’s it.
Though your book isn’t available for download yet, we’ll still publish a product detail page for it within 24 hours of approval. Customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set and it will be delivered to them on that date. However, customers won’t be able to download sample content for pre-order books.
You can list pre-order books in all marketplaces except Amazon.com.in, where pre-orders are not currently available. Your book will release at midnight local time in each marketplace.
When you list a book for pre-order, you’ll need to upload the final version or a draft manuscript of the book file for review. Typically, a draft manuscript would be something like a complete book that might still need copyediting and proofreading. We won’t show the version to customers, but we’ll need to preview the content for compliance with our Program Policies before creating the pre-order detail page. It will go through the same review process that any other KDP book would. Your final version must be uploaded 10 days before the release date you set.
Only new KDP books are eligible for pre-order. Public domain books are not eligible for pre-order. You may list up to 10 titles at once for pre-order, with room for more pre-order listings as you release each title.
UPDATE: (11pm GMT)
Ah, check your email KDP subscribers…
Hello,
We’re excited to announce that you can now make your new books available for pre-order in Kindle Stores worldwide. With a few quick and easy steps you can create a pre-order page up to 90 days in advance of your book’s release date–your pre-order product page will be created within 24 hours. When you make your book available for pre-order, customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set. We will deliver it to them on that date.
One advantage of using pre-order is that you can start promoting your Kindle book pre-order page on Author Central, Goodreads, your personal website, and other places ahead of its release to help build excitement for your book. Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising ahead of release, which can help more readers discover your book.
Visit your KDP Bookshelf to set up your new book for pre-order.
Best regards,
The Kindle Direct Publishing Team
Mick Rooney – Publishing Consultant
Is this a way to game the system? The article does claim:
“Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising even before your book is released, which can help more readers discover your book.”
That suggest that pre-sales get counted when made even though no payment is charged. But do they also get counted as real sales on the day an ebook comes out?
Counting them once means that sales that are canceled still add to a book’s ranking. Counting them twice, particularly counting 90 days of presales on the day a book comes out is double-counting and would greatly its seeming popularity.
Maybe that’s one reason why the major publishers like preorders.
That’s my understanding as well, Inkling, that the pre-order sales kick in for the first week. But it’s the same for the ig boys and girls.