Back in January 2012, a Createspace forum member asked how to set up Pre-Orders on Amazon. I replied with an answer. Since then, that thread has grown to over 25 pages long, got approx. 239,128 views & received 368 comments! That 1
Createspace thread (thread no longer active)
was (by far) the only place on the internet with the most information on how to set up Pre-Orders on Amazon (for print books). Now … this is the most in-depth article that can be found on the web that explains this process. This method has worked for hundreds if not thousands of folks. I’m proud to admit that my students and clients experienced a 100% success rate using my process. As a matter of fact, a friend of mine (Eric Vogel) pointed out to me that
Pat Flynn used the same process during the pre-launch of his latest book: “
Will It Fly“! Pat explained in his
blog post how he followed my advise from the Createspace thread. I was honored to have helped Pat in an indirect way with his launch strategy! My goal with this article was to condense all the information from that 24 page long Createspace thread, and update the step-by-step process so that it’s current and easier to follow. Enjoy!
UPDATE: 08/27/2018 – Createspace is in the midst of a merge with KDP. So the question is: “Can the same pre-order process be used with KDP since Createspace will not be around for long?” I’ve been monitoring a few books of some authors and so far the results are promising. I’m pretty close to being 100% behind recommending a similar process of setting up pre-orders using KDP instead of Createspace, but I need to run a couple more tests.
UPDATE: 12/13/2018 – The process that worked with Createspace ALSO works using KDP. Almost all the steps are completely the same. There are a few modifications to those steps which I’ve already updated within the article, so you can follow step-by-step and you’ll be good to go. Please refer to the end of this article for further information regarding the pre-order process with KDP.
UPDATE: 06/16/2019 – Amazon Advantage enrollment has been paused (but not closed). This does not affect individuals who already have active accounts, just those who try to open new accounts. Amazon’s reasoning for this is that they are making improvements to the registration process. Their explanation suggests that this is temporary. How long? Well, nobody but Amazon knows. To be notified when enrollment re-opens, Amazon suggests registering your eMail. You can register your eMail
here.
Update (as of NOW): Amazon Advantage is “open” and enrollment has returned. Amazon will notify you if you are eligible for enrollment (after they review your information). Sign up here.
For years, as long as Amazon has existed or at least as far back as I can remember (which was around the time I published my first book in 2008), listing an unpublished book with a future publish date (for pre-order) was actually nothing new for a ‘select’ few on Amazon. It was a little ‘secret’ that Mainstream/Traditional (‘The Big 6’) Publishers, including some mid-size publishers and well-known in demand authors were using this technique.
However, Amazon still remains indifferent to officially introducing a straight forward pre-order process for print books and as a result there has been limited information on any specific strategy that could work. Prior to discovering a way to set up print books for pre-orders on Amazon, I was frustrated that the process was clearly not available for indie publishers. After noticing other folks in the indie book publishing community expressing their frustration as well, I decided to look into the process a bit more thoroughly.
