Tag: pre-order

Amazon’s New Pre-Order Policies Give Authors More Flexibility

Amazon pre-orderAmazon recently made some changes to their pre-order process that give authors more flexibility.

Back in 2014, in what was considered a great leap forward for self-published authors, Amazon provided the ability to offer books for pre-order. Previously, only big publishers had that option on Amazon. While this was a great move, the pre-order process on Amazon had some strict requirements. Book files had to be uploaded ten days prior to the book’s on-sale date, and if you missed the deadline (either because you failed to finish the book or because you simply forgot to check the box saying it was the final copy of your book), Amazon canceled your pre-order and you were banned from doing preorders for an entire year. Continue reading “Amazon’s New Pre-Order Policies Give Authors More Flexibility”

BIG AL: Latest Amazon Changes May Help Indie Authors

Amazon.comIn case you haven’t noticed, there is a BIG difference between how Amazon sells books and how everyone else that purports to be in the book selling business does it. When talk turns to what Barnes & Noble could change to sell more books through BarnesAndNoble.com, the answers always boil down to “be more like Amazon.” The problem with that is that Amazon started innovating the day they went into business and have never stopped trying out new things.

In the last couple weeks I’ve discovered two new innovations that are being tested by Amazon and appear to be headed our way. I’m guessing that if they’re deemed successful (meaning Amazon makes more money and it is a positive for their customers) then both programs will get rolled out to everyone. Each of these has the potential to be positive for indies.

The first is allowing indies to schedule the release of their book and for customers to pre-order that book prior to release. They’ve run a pilot program with selected indie authors being invited to give this a test run. The benefits should be obvious to any of you who have tried to schedule book release activities while coordinating the timing of your book being available on Amazon with your “official” release date. I know Amazon quizzes authors from time to time asking for ways they can improve and I’m sure this idea has been dropped in the suggestion box many times. (I’m going to assume it is coincidence that Smashwords recently started offering this ability for books distributed through them to some retailers.)

I suspect this will also change the way the game is played for those trying to maximize the help they receive from Amazon’s algorithms on a new release. How that will change, I don’t know. I’ll do like the rest of you and wait for David Gaughran to weigh in with the answer. Continue reading “BIG AL: Latest Amazon Changes May Help Indie Authors”