For more than a year, independent bookstores, led by the American Booksellers Association, have been placing a new emphasis on pre-orders, seeking to take a bigger share of a part of the business that has been dominated by Amazon. In this two-part feature, Shelf Awareness focuses on one indie that's built a successful pre-order business during the past decade--and its many tips and suggestions about how to do it right.
Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Va., has been doing pre-order campaigns since 2009, beginning with an initiative centered on the novel Ballad by local author Maggie Stiefvater. According to Fountain Bookstore owner Kelly Justice, many of the store's early pre-order campaigns grew out of partnerships with authors, who besides Stiefvater have included John and Sherry Petersik (Young House Love) and D. Randall Blythe, lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Lamb of God.
Over the years, Justice said, the store's efforts have grown, as have the number of authors and publishers with which Fountain Bookstore works on pre-order campaigns. Pre-orders have become a major part of her business, and the major campaigns, which Justice loosely defined as around 500 copies or higher, necessitate renting warehouse and fulfillment space and even hiring temporary staff.
"No campaign is too small or too large," said Justice. "We are here to be of service to the authors, fans and our publishing partners."
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| Kelly Justice | |
Looking back on her roughly 10 years of experience doing online pre-orders, Justice said the most important thing to remember is that managing customer expectations is critical. Online customers, she explained, have certain sets of expectations that can "sort of conflict with the day-to-day running of your store." These expectations relate to customer service and communication as well as fulfillment, with many online customers accustomed to getting a book on the publication date.
That isn't always feasible for Fountain Bookstore, so Justice and her team now send a message to every pre-order customer explaining that their books and assorted pre-order bonuses are being packaged by hand and shipped the day before release, in the order in which they were received.
"The language is more elegant than that, but that's the general gist," Justice said. She emphasized that with pre-orders, it's not just "packing and shipping and packing and shipping," or "a book, a thing and a signature." She and her staff view the pre-order boxes and the entire pre-order process as an extension of the Fountain Bookstore experience.
"It's almost like having a personal author experience remotely," she said. "You get a story and you're part of a celebration. It just happens to be online instead of in the store."
One of the most valuable things Justice has learned from running these campaigns has to do with customer communication. If a customer asks a question on Twitter, she said, answer them on Twitter. If someone asks a question in an e-mail, answer with an e-mail.
"Whatever platform they choose to communicate with you on, even if it's Instagram, that is the platform you need to answer them on," Justice said. "Don't ever say, 'please call the store.' "
Once upon a time, Justice continued, it was fine if someone e-mailed the store with a question or concern and got a reply within 24 hours. But selling pre-orders online brings with it entirely different expectations regarding customer service, and booksellers need to be more responsive. A side effect of this, Justice added, is that booksellers need to make sure their internal communication systems work well. She said: "You need to be able to talk to each other and communicate with the customer without making the customer take an extra step."
When asked how far in advance she prefers to start pre-order campaigns, Justice answered "as far out as we can possibly get it," provided there's an ISBN and a finalized price. She warned that taking pre-orders before a price is finalized is a "great way to lose a lot of money" if you take dozens or potentially hundreds of pre-orders at a certain price and then the publisher increases the cost by a few dollars.
Having a finalized book cover, on the other hand, isn't necessary for launching a campaign, and a cover reveal can actually be a good way to drum up more interest for an ongoing campaign. And while it's almost never too early to start a pre-order campaign, it can be too late, and Justice recommended that any campaign start at least 60-90 days before publication.
"That would be my minimum," reported Justice. "We've had people who have approached us two weeks before the on-sale date." --Alex Mutter
Part two of this article will look at how Justice and her team fulfill major campaigns.