Holly Lisle is asking interested readers to pre-order her new book, because this will affect future deals offered to her. This is not a unique situation. I didn’t know this before I became a published author, but after I was offered my first contract certain things were explained to me, one of them being the importance of pre-orders. Unfortunately, I think most readers aren’t aware of this, so I’m going to tell you–If you want to support your authors, pre-order their books. That’s why the authors put those Amazon.com and BN.com pre-order links on their websites and say things like, “My book is available for pre-order now!”
Hint. Hint. 
I failed to mention this when I explained the process of initial print runs. In addition to those orders made by booksellers after the pitch from the publisher marketing depts., the booksellers also track pre-orders on their websites. This gives them somewhat of an idea of reader interest in a particular book.
However, it seems to me that most readers wait until the book hits the shelves and then sometimes weeks pass before they pick up the book, even though they have every intention of doing so. Pre-ordering is good for both you and the author. You get the book delivered straight to your door (usually they ship before the actual release date, so you could get it on your porch before your local bookseller has it on their shelves) and the author benefits by the early interest shown in their book.
So… if you’ve got a book you know you’re going to buy when it comes out and it’s available for preorder, preorder it!! The author will thank you. 
I thought pre-ordering could be bad for an author because the books tend to dribble out, instead of going out all on the same date, which adversely affects her chances of getting onto a bestseller list. Haven’t I read that somewhere? Or am I just loopy and imagining things again??
by Ellen Fisher April 29th, 2005 at 1:22 pmPre-ordered books that ship before the release date don’t count towards bestsellers lists. So if your book’s official release date is the 5th and Amazon starts shipping on the 30th, those books don’t count toward the lists. But those pre-orders are apparently important in contract negotiations and since most books destined to be bestsellers will be anyway, it’s good to get those pre-order numbers up.
by SylviaWow, I had no idea until Holly wrote about her situation at Onyx. I pre-ordered three books today. I wish I could order one from every author I know!
by Joely Sue April 29th, 2005 at 1:53 pm