Fancy pre-ordering my exciting début novel?  Well now you can!  If you’re not tying yourself into the whole Kindle Select Program, you can go ahead and upload your book to Smashwords, weeks before your launch and make it available to pre-order.  I think this is a fantastic idea, because in the lead up to the launch of The Cross Of Santiago, people keep asking me where they can get my book, but I don’t have any link to give them.  This makes me look silly.

Me:  Hey, I’ve got a new book coming out.

Random Acquaintance:  Good for you Evie, where can I get a copy?

Me:  Well, it’s an e-book, so you can download it off Amazon.

RA:  Great, I’ll do it right now.

Me:  Um, well no, you see it hasn’t launched yet, so if you log on to Amazon, it eh… well it won’t be there yet.

RA:  Right, right.

Me:  But it will be in two weeks, I mean you could just keep checking my blog until then and I’ll give you the links??

RA:  Oh, here’s my bus, gotta go, I’ll call you though…

Gone.  You won’t get that opportunity back.  And you sound like you’re launching your novel in a makey-uppy land… far, far away.  But with Smashwords, you can upload everything weeks ahead of your actual launch, so people not only have a link to view your novel (with a cheeky sample to boot), but they can also pre-order it.  This could mean a head-start when it comes to your sales rankings and all that algorithm jazz, so for me it’s a no-brainer.  So publish pre-order books to Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo, and according to Smashwords ” Accumulated sales during the pre-order period can cause your book to rise in the best-seller lists”.  Let me know your views.

To pre-order your copy of The Cross Of Santiago with Smashwords, click here.