I like it when I learn new things about self-publishing. It’s on-the-job training that you don’t really get anywhere else.

I just learned more details about Amazon’s self-publishing program. I always knew about pre-orders, but I never realized how useful it can be. For example – you can put in a part of a book, and when you’re finished (as long as it’s before the deadline. More on that in a minute), you can update the file with the full book. You can post the link in the back of a Kindle book, and they can pre-order it. I know, I know – yeah…duh…. I jut never considered that. I always wanted to have the book ready to be uploaded and sent out directly to Amazon.

The other thing I learned is this: You have up to a year.

A whole year. Can you write a book in a year? I know I can.

I can put in a placeholder file for Valentina’s Repast and work on it, get it finished by…say…Hallowe’en next year and put in a pre-order link. I can use that as a way of seeing whether or not the first book was popular. If I get a lot of pre-orders, I know the book series is going to be a winner. If I don’t get a lot – maybe this is something I should set aside.

The problem – because there are always problems – is that if I put up a pre-order, I have to follow through. Not only because I made a promise to my readers, but if I don’t, Amazon will cancel the sale and I don’t get the money from the pre-orders. The money is secondary, but the promise is real. This is the reason why I didn’t take advantage of pre-orders. Now that I know how it works, I will use it as much as I can.

In fact, I plan on using it at the end of this week. I’m going to finish up trimming down Valentina’s Feast (2K words! I can do it!) and put it up for sale on Hallowe’en. After that, I will put up a place holder file for Repast and put in the pre-order link and refresh Feast’s file. After that, I let people know about Feast and hopefully get some sales.

Oh, did I mention that I have a concrete day for Valentina’s Feast? Yep. 10/31/21 is the date is it coming out ready or not. I’ve been hemming and hawing long enough. This Sunday, I will lock myself away and cut it down to 90K words or less. After that, I get everything together and start hawking it. Wish me luck.

Speaking up books – you know the drill. Books to the right, give cash for some coffee and buy Valentina’s Feast when it hits the virtual shelves on Amazon or wherever you buy e-books.

Have fun and stay safe.