We have a full cover! This past week, my publisher at Cornerstone Press shared the full cover for Trust Issues: Stories. I’m thrilled. I think we’ll have another blurb on the final copy. My publisher and his team have done such a great job. It was a pleasure working through the edits with them.

We will begin taking pre-orders July 15.

I knew the full cover would be here soon, because, as you probably know, I do this for other people’s books. I’m the publisher at Madville. I’m trying hard not to be an annoying author. I usually sit on the other side of these deals, so I want to avoid doing things that make more work for me, like late edits. Well, I did not quite succeed with that. (Sorry team!) I made a correction to the Acknowledgments after review copies of the book were already printed. (Side note here… this is a hidden advantage to working with a university press: they have a printing press on campus!) So, if you happen to receive a review copy, know that the acknowledgments will be a little bit different in the final version.

So what’s the big deal about pre-orders?

The importance of pre-orders is something a lot of indie authors question. The practice enters the publishing sphere with the old traditional publishing model. It’s the way we used to do things before self-publishing became so prevalent, and I think that overlooking this step hurts many self-published authors who rush to market their books.

• From the point of view of the publisher, pre-orders are the best indicator of how successful a book will be. And they help us to estimate how many to print initially.
• For any book, the first week’s sales determine whether or not that book makes it onto bestseller lists. And all pre-sales count toward that first week’s sales.
• Pre-orders give us something to get excited about. And once we have a button people can click to actually order a copy, we can shift our efforts into gear and start making actual sales.
• Bookstores can see how many preorders we are getting, and they may be encouraged as a result to order more copies for their shelves.
• Pre-orders teach Amazon that your book is in demand even before it launches. It also begins to chart before it’s release if pre-orders ramp up, and when it does release, it leaps higher on the charts and in Amazon’s estimations, meaning Amazon shows it to more people organically.
• And for readers? Pre-orders generally arrive a little early, and that helps readers to avoid any spoilers that may come out.

There’s another reason we want a book to be ready months ahead of the actual release date: early reviews

Another thing I know because I’ve done this many times as a publisher, is that once we have that full cover and a completed text file for the book, we can share with early reviewers. This is another important step in the publishing process that is often overlooked by indie authors in their rush to get to market. I am happy to report that my publisher has already sent out copies of my book to potential early reviewers.

Where do they find such early reviewers?

Where do authors find early reviewers? That is a loaded question! My publisher is an established teaching press, with relationships with the “Trades” as folks call them. These are old-school reviewers attached to publications librarians and bookstore buyers rely on for news of upcoming releases. They include names you know like The New York Times Book Review and Washington Post Book World, Midwest Book Review, and Shelf Awareness, but increasingly even the old standard trade publications are fading away or becoming pay-to-play. Kirkus Reviews, Forward Reviews, and even Publisher’s Weekly have all gone to a paid model for reviews.

So…