Jon Acuff and That Thing Writers Don’t Talk About

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Remember how I told you that Jon Acuff is my friend, if only because I made a fool of myself in my one moment with him?

There’s one other reason.  When I read someone’s work and it changes my life, then we are are forever on a first-name basis in my imagination.  If you speak into my life, then I take liberties, unapologetically and unabashedly.  Our friendship may be entirely one-sided.  I’m okay with that.

It’s pretty uncouth in the blogosphere to cut and paste somebody else’s words, even if you quote your source.  The better thing is to link directly to the author, since traffic and views matter and you shouldn’t steal from somebody.  So, to find the original source and idea for this blog post, go to Jon Acuff’s blog or click directly on this post.

He wrote a great blog post recently to introduce his new (and brilliant!) book, Do Over: Punch Fear in the Face.

In his post called That Thing Authors Never Talk About, Jon wrote:

What authors never talk about is why someone pre-ordering your book is so important.  It’s actually pretty simple though, because when you pre-order a book, you tell booksellers that they should order more of that book.

When you pre-order a book, you tell booksellers that they should order more of that book.

Stores, especially online, can’t afford to carry a ton of copies of every book ever written. Can you imagine how big the shelves would be? 

It doesn’t matter if you’ve hit the New York Times list before, have cool spiky hair that went out of style in 2009 or live in Nashville, stores will only order a few copies of your book. Then when your book comes out and your seven friends order a copy, the book is instantly out of stock. As a reader, you think, “How amazing, that book is already out of stock! I bet that author is crying tears of joy and wiping away the tears with hundred dollar bills.”

We’re not, we’re just crying. We only sold seven copies. Plus, nothing kills a book launch like the phrase, “Out of stock, available in 3-4 weeks.”

When you pre-order though, retailers take note and think, “Wait a second, people pre-ordered this book. We better stock up!” 

If you were thinking of buying Let’s Pretend We’re Normal later, it would be crazy super awesome if you would pre-order it today.

In the world of my bookselling imagination, just think: if you order yours today, then your order might be the one to push a bookseller to stock more copies.  And then the people who don’t know they need this book will find a book on a shelf where there may have been only books about origami and duck hunting.

(Not that there’s anything wrong with origami or duck hunting.  Or that there’s any reasonable likelihood that they should be shelved with Let’s Pretend We’re Normal.)

What I’m saying here is . . .  Pre-Ordering is a win for everyone.  And you could be the reason everyone wins.Let’s Pretend We’re#1DBD551

Tricia Lott Williford

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  1. I loved your first book. Just pre-ordered the new release. God’s continued favor upon you, Tricia!

  2. Thanks for the nudge! Just pre-ordered!

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