So here's my question.
Do you preorder books? And if you do, what are your reasons for doing it? Do you just preorder books from your favourite authors or do you do it for anything you're particularly excited about?
Honestly, this is a phenomenon I don't really understand. The last book I preordered was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and then I ended up cancelling my preorder because I went on the spur of the moment to one of the 'dress up like a wizard and queue up outside Waterstone's at midnight and have a picture taken of you holding a book' events and bought one anyway. I am speaking as a person who also doesn't really like or buy hardbacks though, so obviously I have no problem waiting to read things. Is it just the price reduction that draws you to preorder or do you like the feeling of being assured a copy as soon as the book comes out?
I sort of understood it with Harry Potter because there was that whole thing where they actually did run out of books and lots of people who wanted to read whichever book it was that happened with had to wait for a whole other print run to happen before they could, but as far as I'm aware that doesn't happen too often. Generally if you want to read a book all you have to do is go to a bookshop/ask someone/order it and there it is, and it's not like I'm going to run out of stuff to read while I'm waiting for the book to arrive or come out in paperback. I think we've already established that it would be a minimum of a couple of years before I'm even going to start looking like I might run out of reading material.
So those are my thoughts on the whole preordering thing, and I am genuinely curious to know what you all think about it and whether you do it or not and why (or why not). Let's talk in the comments!
I sometime preorder books. Not always. And it's usually a book from an author I know or a series that I follow. These days, my preordering is in the form of e-books, not hardcovers or paperbacks. Then there is no issue with "running out" of copies. I do remember preordering that particular Harry Potter book and being annoyed that it wasn't delivered until later on the day it came out, not early in the morning. LOL
ReplyDeleteHaha well you would think that having pre-ordered it would have meant you would be among the special first people to get it! I would have been annoyed as well!
DeleteI don't tend to pre-order. Same as you I pre-ordered Harry Potter books, the last one I pre-ordered was the Tales of Beedle the Bard. It makes sense with series though because it's a continuing story, so you want to read the next bit as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteI agree. That's why I did it with Harry Potter - I just didn't want to wait longer than I had to to finish it off! I guess I've not done it since because I've not been that desperate to read anything since then, sad as that sounds. I get really excited about stuff but then something else comes along and I'm like 'oooooh shiny!' and forget about the thing I really wanted to read until I see it cheap/in the library or someone sends it to me as a present :-)
DeleteI have pre ordered books, mostly eBooks. If I want a hardcover, gone are those days and I usually pick them up after the fact as penny book on Amazon.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin recently published her first book and through her publisher I was told that pre-orders often determine book sales, whether the book should drop paper, hardcover or electronic, and how much in royalties the book might produce. In the past, it was pre-orders that got someone on the NYTimes bestsellers list only because store were allowed pre-orders in case lots.
Most of my pre-orders get cancelled when I look at the list with a "what was I thinking" attitude, or my debit card is screaming.
That's interesting Andrea, and makes total sense that pre-orders would help to determine book sales and formats. I never really thought about how that was all worked out! I would likely be the same with the 'what was I thinking' attitude! It's a good thing that I've mostly stopped randomly buying books online - I used to do it after a few glasses of wine and end up with some extremely random things! I also tend to get really excited about things in the moment and come back to them a few weeks later and think... hmmm. A lot of stuff gets added to my wishlist and swiftly taken off again!
DeleteMy husband is a big Stephen King fan, so I'll usually pre-order those for him. The only other time I'll pre-order something is if it's being offered at a ridiculous discount, otherwise I'll wait and pick it up at the bookstore. Never thought of it, but Andrea has a point about pre-ordering helping an author. Will have to remember that for the future.
ReplyDeleteTerri @ Alexia's Books and Such...
I pre-order for 1) the price reduction, 2) knowing that you have a first-print/first-edition, 3) collecting the hardcopy, 4) reading it before you get hit with spoilers.
ReplyDeleteYour post made me nostalgic about those Harry Potter days - I stood in line for every single release :)