The Countdown Begins

Today marks exactly six months before the release of my second novel, Burner. To commemorate, I’m excited to “officially” announce that Burner is available for pre-order on Amazon, Books Inc, Book Passage, Kepler’s, Bookshop.org and most other bookstore websites.

Today is also the beginning of my promotional campaign in support of the novel. One of the most frequent questions I get about publishing a book is “why does it take so long?” Although I still don't have a convincing answer to that question, a big reason is the time required for promotion. And the majority of a book’s promotion happens in advance of the release date.

Why? By the time a novel launches, it needs to be reviewed by authors, awards judges, and literary publications. Media and book influencers need to read it as well. And, of course, book store buyers need to evaluate the book and decide whether to carry it in their inventory. All these activities require a long lead-time because reading a book takes time. The decision makers who most heavily influence a book’s sales all have stacks upon stacks of books to review. So, as an author, you and your publisher need to have your book completely finished at least six months in advance to give all those advance readers time.

The other reason the release of a book takes so long is, much like an album or movie, sales of a novel are front-end loaded. The release date is less a beginning, and more of a milestone in a book’s sales journey. With Bit Flip, over one-third of my cumulative sales happened before the release date. Seventy percent of sales happened within two months of the release—concurrent with my heaviest promotion of the book. Although sales of Bit Flip still happen every day, it’s very much a “long tail” of sales. Unless, or until, some subsequent event—for example, an endorsement by a celebrity, a prominent review, a TV or film adaptation, or the release of another book by that author—drives an uptick.

Finally, early sales out of the gate can become a self-fulfilling momentum builder. Sales drive “best-seller” rankings, from Amazon to The New York Times, and being on a best-seller list, in turn, gives a book a tremendous sales lift. So publishers want to concentrate as many sales around a book’s release date as possible to show momentum, and, thereby, gain more momentum. Those pre-sales numbers also help publishers decide how many books to print.

This is all a long-winded way of saying pre-orders matter. So I encourage you to navigate to your favorite bookstore, find Burner, and pre-order your copy today in either paperback or e-book in anticipation of the April 16, 2024 release. A quick note for all you audiobook fans: as with Bit Flip, the release of the audiobook version will trail the paperback release by a month or two to provide a sales boost. Exact date TBD, but stay tuned here or on social media for an announcement about that soon.

Thank you all for your support!