Writing a book is daunting enough, but the thought of putting in so much effort only to sell zero copies is even more terrifying.
Although I had a topic in mind, I wasn’t sure if anyone else would be interested in it. After 13 years working in software, I knew that many developers lacked critical internet knowledge, which often held them back in interviews and stunted their career growth.
The question was: if I wrote a book to solve this problem, would anyone actually care?
The concept of pre-ordering a book isn’t new. Amazon offers this feature out-of-the-box if you choose to sell through their store, and I’m sure many authors have found success this way.
But some writers, like me, prefer the independent route — selling directly to customers through their own website, without any gatekeepers. Another motivator for me was to improve my marketing skills by launching my pre-order to an existing email list of 4,500 software developers.
In this article, I’ll share the step-by-step process that resulted in 62 book purchases within an 11-day pre-launch period.
9 Email Book Pre-Launch Process
Below is the series of emails I sent to my audience leading up to and following the day I opened the pre-launch.
30 days before launch: Introduce the topic.
My topic was the internet for developers, so I tried to describe how developers lack this important knowledge and why it’s important.
Once an interviewer asked me “How does DNS work?”. The answer that came out of my mouth was enough to convince me that I wasn’t the senior developer I thought I was.
Email title: The ONE thing developers aren’t talking about but should be.
23 days before launch: Educate audience on one topic covered by my book.
The idea is to show that I can teach them something valuable and interesting.
Email title: Most developers can’t answer this basic interview question.
16 days before launch: Educate audience on another topic covered by my book.
Email title: I don’t blame the interviewer for not hiring me after failing this question.
9 days before launch: Educate audience on another topic covered by my book.
At the end of the email, mention the fact that I’m working on a book.
In next week’s email …I’ll also share details of a book I’m working on specifically for busy developers who understand the importance of the internet fundamentals to their software development career.
Email title: The one time I realised I knew more than my colleagues
3 days before launch: Educate audience on another topic covered by my book.
At the end of the email, include details of the book.
- Name (Internet Fundamentals for Developers)
- How it can help the reader (Become a respected team-member everyone asks for advice.)
- Pre-order details (Look out for my email on Monday with details of how to pre-order a limited copy)
Email title: The stupidly simple way browsers decide who to trust online
Launch day: Let audience know the pre-order is available.
Include these details:
- The problem the book solves (Sadly most developers never learn the fundamentals of the internet. Any code they write to interact with the internet is trial-and-error.)
- How the book solves the problem and what life will be like after reading it (Design great software that you and your team are excited to implement.)
- A payment link (my book was priced at $12)
Email title: Developers who don’t learn this technology get stuck for years
My launch email had a 39% open rate
2 days after launch: Share a personal story.
The idea is to build rapport by describing how I was in the same position as the reader and how I improved my situation. I position my book as the shortcut to solving that problem.
Email title: The real reason I’m writing another book
At this point I had sold 32 copies of my book. I didn’t send any more emails because I was out of ideas and thought I was emailing too much. Sales slowed down. Then I had an idea to use a marketing tactic called scarcity.
10 days after launch: Share another personal story.
Tie the story into how the book can help solve their problem. Let them know that pre-order will close in 24 hours and they should order now for the best price.
11 days after launch: Quick reminder that they need to pre-order now to avoid missing out.
Email title: Pre-order closes in 34 minutes
I then closed the pre-launch by deactivating my Stripe payment link.
Closing the book pre-order wasn’t easy when customers were still buying
Results From the Pre-Order
This strategy resulted in 62 total book sales. At $12 per sale, that’s $744.
Some other interesting points:
- 25 out of 62 sales came in the last 2 days. This was after I emailed about the end of the pre-sale.
- I didn’t have a sales/landing page during this period. I linked directly to Stripe from my emails.
- Customers were placing orders right up until I closed the pre-launch. It was tempting to leave it open, but I decided to stick to my word.
Although my original target had been 100 book sales, I was pleased to sell 62 copies. It proved that what I had learnt about marketing does work in practice and also validated my book idea.
Much of what I did during this launch was not well prepared. At every point I was just trying things that I thought might work. I believe that with more planning on the next launch, I could definitely get better results.
With 62 customers patiently waiting, writing my book is my current focus.
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