E-book pre-orders on free stores (Google Play Books, Kobo Writing Life)
Harvested 2026-10-26 (skills harvest). Internal how-to; nothing here is sent, listed or published.
Why pre-orders, for a small author
A pre-order turns months of attention into one launch day: every order placed in advance is charged and counted on release day, so the book lands with a visible sales spike instead of a trickle. It also gives every post, talk and podcast mention before launch a real "buy" target rather than "coming soon".
Google Play Books (Partner Center Help, "Enable pre-orders", read 26 Oct 2026)
- Set a future release date up to 2 years ahead and choose Allow pre-orders: Yes (Book info tab, or the bulk spreadsheet).
- No book file is needed to open a pre-order unless release is within 7 days. The file is required 3 days before release, or pre-orders may be cancelled.
- Metadata and price lock 3 days before release. Pre-orders cannot be created inside that window.
- If the price is changed after someone pre-orders, they pay the lower of the two prices on delivery.
- Buyers are charged on release day; no sample is readable until release (so the store description has to sell the book by itself).
- Sales reports use the order date (anticipation is measurable), but money appears in earnings reports only after delivery.
- Pre-orders open at midnight local time in each country; not available in India.
Kobo Writing Life (Kobo's own blog and posts; the KWL help centre blocks this box, so these are from Kobo's published snippets)
- Kobo advises opening a pre-order "as soon as possible – ideally, 12 months in advance", and using the backlist to back it (back-matter links in earlier books pointing to the pre-order). Source: KWL blog "Five top tips for marketing your eBook and audiobook pre-orders".
- Asset-less pre-orders: KWL lets authors create a pre-order without the e-book or audiobook file (KWL blog, "now offers asset-less pre-orders").
- Kobo's own post: all pre-orders "count as sales on DAY ONE of your book's release", boosting visibility and ranking from the start (KWL Facebook page).
- A US author-services firm (Book Launchers) states that a Kobo pre-order counts double toward ranking. Not confirmed on any Kobo page we could read; do not repeat it as fact.
- Practitioner caution (r/selfpublish): for many wide authors all non-Amazon stores together are 5-15% of sales. Kobo pre-orders are a free extra shelf, not a launch engine by themselves.
The routine
- Date it honestly: choose a release date the text, cover and EPUB check (tools/epub_lint.py; epub-editions-sphinx-epubcheck.md) can meet with a week's margin. A missed Google deadline cancels orders, the worst possible first impression.
- Open the pre-order on Google Play and Kobo on the same day, same price (at or above Kobo's UK £1.99 floor to keep 70%), same description.
- One link for readers: a Books2Read universal link (free) that routes each reader to their own store, plus our own /ebooks/ page as the direct option (direct sale = higher margin; stores = discovery).
- Point everything at it: back matter of the free first edition (ebook-back-matter-one-next-step.md), the welcome sequence, talks, podcast show notes, the anniversary calendar post nearest release.
- Release-day mail: one email to the list: "It's out today" with the links. Pre-order buyers already have it; everyone else gets the day-one nudge.
- Measure: Google's sales report by order date shows which promotion moved pre-orders; log each week's count in the project workspace
How we apply it to Cedwyn
- Owner steps only the project lead can do (already listed in free-epub-storefronts-kobo-itch-books2read.md and google-play-books-partner-center-ebooks.md): open the KWL account and the Google Play Partner Center account in his chosen publisher name with payout details. Google's account approval has taken ~18 days for one author, so a pre-order date needs that lead time too.
- Zero spend: both stores are free to list. Never Draft2Digital (activation fee). Kobo's paid promotions only with the project lead's explicit go-ahead.
- Tab prepares: EPUB, cover, description (en/cy/es), keywords and the Books2Read link in the project workspace; nothing goes live without the project lead's go-ahead.
Sources
- Google Play Books Partner Center Help, Enable pre-orders: support.google.com
- Kobo Writing Life blog, Five top tips for marketing your pre-orders: kobo.com (snippet; page blocks this box)
- Kobo Writing Life blog, asset-less pre-orders: kobo.com (snippet)
- Kobo Writing Life on Facebook, pre-orders count on day one: facebook.com (snippet)
- KWL Guide to Pre-Orders: kobowritinglife.zendesk.com (blocked: read on a browser before relying on details)
- Book Launchers, How to sell your book on Kobo Writing Life (the "double" ranking statement, not confirmed): booklaunchers.com
- r/selfpublish, Kobo experience thread (snippet): reddit.com
Raw Markdown: ebook-preorders-google-play-kobo.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json