Thursday 3 September 2009

Why readers preorder books

In a previous post back in April I wondered why people were preordering my American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics, which comes out this month from Osprey Publishing. Why preorder something months in advance when doing it a week in advance will get you the book just the same? I've discovered the answer.

I went to The Gameskeeper, the local gaming store here in Oxford, to convince them to stock my book, gamers being big Osprey fans. The owner and I got into a long conversation about publishing and I brought up the subject of my preorders. She said gaming books often get very early preorders too, and it's because fans want to signal to publishers that they like a certain subject or title. They want to support the process. It's kind of like voting with your money. Apparently military history buffs do this as well.

This makes me feel good about my preorders. Some people started preordering my book back in February! :-)

No comments:

Looking for more from Sean McLachlan? He also hangs out on the Civil War Horror blog, where he focuses on Civil War and Wild West history.

You can also find him on his Twitter feed and Facebook page.