📦 Money · Guide
The Pre-Order
Selling the thing before you build it, without letting anyone down
The Pre-Order
Selling the thing before you build it, without letting anyone down
Your name
A4 · this is a layout preview in the “Washi” design. When you generate, the studio writes every chapter in full, paints the cover and chapter art, and composes a downloadable A4 PDF with your name, bio and store link on it.
A pre-order is a promise with a date on it. Done well it funds the work, proves there is an audience and gives you a deadline you cannot argue with. Done badly it becomes a debt you pay back in apology emails. This guide covers the five decisions that separate the two.
What's inside
- 1What you can honestly promiseYou separate what already exists from what you are confident you can make, and write the promise so that it only contains the second kind. After this chapter you have a scope that will still be true in six weeks.
- 2Set the date, then move it back a weekYou work out a delivery date from the actual hours you have free, not the hours you wish you had, then publish a date a week later than that. The spare week is what turns a stressful launch into a calm one.
- 3Price so that buying early is worth itYou decide what the early buyer gets that the later buyer does not, whether that is a lower price, a bonus or a say in the contents, and make the difference visible. This chapter also covers when a discount is the wrong reward.
- 4Sell the window, not the waitYou run the pre-order as a short period with a clear open and close, and talk about progress rather than repeating the same announcement. By the end you have a simple posting rhythm for the whole window.
- 5Deliver, and what to send if you slipYou plan the delivery day itself, including how files reach buyers and how you handle the ones that bounce, and you write the honest delay email in advance so it is ready if you need it. After this chapter you know exactly what happens on the date you promised.
A sample from chapter one
A pre-order is a promise with a date on it
When somebody pre-orders, they are not buying a file. They are lending you money against your word, and the only collateral you have offered is a date. That changes what you can reasonably say on the page. Every claim has to be one you could still defend in six weeks, on a bad week, with a cold and a broken laptop, because that is roughly when most pre-orders come due.
So write the promise in two columns. On the left, what already exists and could be sent today. On the right, what you are confident you can finish. Anything that belongs in a third column, the things you might add if the work goes well, stays off the page entirely. Surprises are a good thing to deliver and a bad thing to promise.
- Write the promise as a list of deliverables, not a description of ambition.
- Base the date on the hours you actually have free in the next month.
- Publish a date one week later than your honest estimate, and keep the week.
- Decide the refund rule before the first sale, and put it on the page.
Key takeaways
- The date is the product until the product exists, so choose it with care.
- Anything you are not certain you can finish belongs off the page, not in small print.
- Writing the delay email in advance makes it far less likely you will need to send it late.
The studio writes every chapter from this outline, paints the art and hands you a PDF you can sell the same afternoon.
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