When Amazon announced Kindle Pre-Order back in August 2014 they were simply following the lead of Apple and Kobo who both already allow pre-ordering of eBooks. But as experienced book marketers know, low prices and vast selection are not the only reasons book lovers visit Amazon. Regardless of where you ultimately buy a book, Amazon is the go-to destination for ratings and book reviews. Here is how Kindle Pre-Order helps in that regard.
Enabling Pre-Order results in getting an ASIN
What is ASIN? It stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number and it is assigned to all types of products that are available on Amazon, not just books and Kindle eBooks. But in the case of books, it has special meaning: even if you assign an ISBN to your eBook, Amazon will replace it—at least as far as the public is concerned—with an ASIN. Having an ASIN means you can now pro-actively market your book.
Where to find your ASIN
Find your Kindle book in the Amazon store and look under the section called Product Details. There is a line there that says ASIN: “B009VPQOAA”. The text string I show here in quotes is for my book, yours will be uniquely different. Write this down and keep it handy.
Use #1 for your ASIN
Like I explained in my original article about creating short links to eBooks, you can use your ASIN in a URL to create a friendly, short link to your eBook. So this:
Becomes this: http://www.amzn.com/B009VPQOAA. Or if you prefer to show the full Amazon domain name it would be: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009VPQOAA.
Use #2 for your ASIN
This is a little more involved, and it might add some cost or time to the eBook conversion process, but consider adding a note in your eBook inviting people to write a review, and link to the review page for your book. Now anyone that has tried to get people to write reviews knows how hard it is to make this happen. Anything you can do to simplify the process will yield better results than simply asking the reader to “go to Amazon and write a review.”
When you have your Kindle book's ASIN you can create a link that takes the reader directly to your book. Simply add your ASIN at the end of this link:
http://www.Amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/write-a-review.html?asin=
Like this:
http://www.Amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/write-a-review.html?asin=B009VPQOAA.
If you click that link you will be taken to a screen where you can write a review of my book. (Read more about this in my article Getting People You Know to Review Your Book-What should you expect?)
Getting started
If you are not planning to use Kindle Pre-Order, you should seriously consider it. Getting your ASIN assigned early isn’t the only important benefit. You also get a chance to collect orders that will help your Kindle book climb the charts on release day. Read more about Kindle Pre-Order here.
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Good piece, David. This practice -pre-ordering-has been in traditional publishing’s practice forever, in one form or another. Along the ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ lines, this strategy has worked well & if the author has/had a known brand/name, an ad in national mag/newspaper announcing ‘Pre-order’ isn’t/wasn’t uncommon—Anne Rice’s publisher did this recently for her latest that just came out (or is coming out this w/e).
thanks,
Marla Miller
Thanks for stopping by Marla.
Thanks for this useful info. Most of other articles about Kindle pre-order didn’t mention about how ASIN can be used inside the book to link to the review page. That’s a practical problem because otherwise I have to release the book first, and then update it once to put the review link.
Glad you found it helpful.
Thanks for this, David. Any suggestion on what a good price point would be for a novel in pre-order?
I suggest charging as little as possible. You won’t get a second chance to make a splash and a low price encourages orders, and hopefully reviews. Also, your best prospects are friends, family and people you know, often many that helped you with your writing. Why not reward them with a great deal? You can always increase the price later.