Hello everyone,

This is a bit of an in-between week - for the first time in ages I have a bit of breathing room and I’m enjoying sitting a bit and not doing much.

However, I thought it could be a good time to do some ‘publishing inside baseball’ and write a bit about why pre-orders are so prevalent in the industry and why they are important.

Generally, a pre-order occurs when a book has been paid for but the book has yet to arrive at the publisher’s HQ. There’s this period of 4-6 weeks where a publisher has paid perhaps $5-10,000 (a bit hit to the bank account) but the product isn’t there yet. In this space, many publishers (myself included) have turned to pre-orders as a way to bring in a touch of money to pad things out.

Publishing is seasonal - sales are not static, but highly elastic. One month we might clear $10,000 in sales, another month it may be $650. Those are real figures from two months this year (January and February). Everything in the industry also requires up front payment: paying for printing, paying for book fairs, paying for travel costs to attend the book fairs, paying for merch - all that money goes out before even a single dollar comes in.

Pre-orders, therefore, provide a really, really vital bridge where a bit of cash comes in and keeps the business afloat before the product officially is shipping and launched.

There is a downside to relying on pre-orders: missing some energy and hype when a product is here, real, shipping now. There is something exciting about holding something back and then - BAM - it’s here and you can buy it. No gap, no waits for customers, no slow build up, no ‘sorry it’s been delayed’ emails. Just tangible, clear, definite. I think, all things considered, I would always opt for this model over relying on pre-orders, but I would always opt for pre-orders over being broke!

Many, many publishers use pre-orders as well. Some incentivise these by offering a signed copy for all pre-orders, or a free print for the first fifty orders. In general I think these are really reasonable. Fifty orders that come in quickly can see back perhaps 15-20% of one’s outgoing costs, so that’s a nice financial cushion to have back fast. Personally, I haven’t experimented with those models much - it’s felt a touch unworkable for how my business is structured financially. But perhaps with the right artist or project that’ll make sense. I’m open to it.

This year, there will be at least one book that can’t be pre-ordered, it’ll just drop. Perhaps two!

In the mean time:

a) Please remember to come to my opening on May 1st, an artist talk on May 2nd or the dingo events on May 3rd. 3553 Gallery, Collingwood.

b) You can pre-order my book here (book, signed book or with a print) — if you don’t want to pay shipping and want to pick up just email me back and that’s easy to sort.

c) Melbourne workshops are ENDING IN JUNE - I have two workshops with places left, there won’t be any others this year. If you’ve been waiting for the right time, well, maybe this isn’t the right time, but it is the only time!