If you haven’t caught the news, there’s a fancy new page on the site about Sea bugs! The Jigamaree Huntmy next swashbuckling graphic novel with writer Kate Milford and colorists K. Czap and Natalie Riess, and right on time! This week Barnes & Noble is having a huge pre-order sale that includes our book! You can use the code PREORDER25 for a hefty 25% discount now through Friday 9/11/26. (This offer is for B&N rewards members, but it’s basically like a free frequent flyer program. It should be easy to sign up.)
If B&N doesn’t convince you, I’m always a fan of pre-ordering from your local independent bookstore or asking your library to carry the book. More information about all that here. There will be other sales and pre-order promotions between now and the book’s release date next March, so if money is tight or you have to skip this one, fear not.
And why all this? affairanyway? Well, for traditional publishers, it’s all about pre-orders. They let booksellers, librarians, reviewers, and the marketing department know that people are excited about this release, which means they’ll put more energy into helping us get it out into the world. It’s a proof of concept.
They also affect our potential placement on bestseller lists when the book is published. Those “instant bestsellers”? In reality they are the accumulation of each preorder received before the book’s release, not the number of books sold the week the title comes out.
All that to say: pre-orders do matter! A lot!
There are so many things about traditional publishing that I assume everyone already knows, and I have to keep reminding myself that Yo I didn’t know much about this stuff before I started dipping my toe into non-Kickstarter-funded book-making waters. It is opaque and meaningless and often deserves a word or two of clarification. I’m learning as I go. We’ll share more of that along the way here.