NOT so very long ago publication of something like a new Harry Potter novel could cause a frenzy of publication-day anticipation. In those pre-Kindle, pre-iPhone days, kids—and not a few adults—lined up outside bookstores the night before each book came out, many of them dressed as one of J.K. Rowling’s characters, so they could be among the very first to buy the book when it went on sale at the stroke of midnight.
Even back then some tech-savvy readers figured out they could skip the lines and preorder online for delivery on publication day. Today, with more than half of book sales taking place online, preorders have become an important indicator of early interest in a forthcoming book. This in turn has given rise to a new marketing wrinkle, the preorder campaign, in which publishers, usually with the author’s help, try to build prepublication buzz by urging readers to buy a book before it’s published.
Preorder campaigns can range in scale from a few e-mail blasts to friends and family to elaborate rollouts on social media and special premiums for early buyers. While publishers still oversee much of this early marketing push, the onus for driving preorders is increasingly falling on authors themselves. So, are preorders worth the time and effort? Will a
