Making the bestseller list: The true impact of a pre-order campaign

When we received the Nine Ten Publications newsletter in our inboxes on July 3 and read the opening paragraph: “I learned about The True Cost of Wool being on the bestseller list when the head of our sales agency emailed me on Saturday with a subject line of 'holy smokes girl.' Happiest email I've ever gotten in my life.” Well, we knew we wanted to know more. So we emailed Kim Werker, Co-Founder and Publisher of Canadian press Nine Ten Publications, with our questions which she happily obliged us by answering.

Tell us a bit about Nine Ten Publications

Nine Ten publishes Canadian books about how to make things and how things are made. Our books tend to be nerdy deep-dives into topics passionate people get very excited about. Like the Canadian wool supply chain, how to work with natural pigments, exploring your creativity through quilting, or embracing the math that's inherent to knitting. We also have a book coming out in the fall that's a Canadian-rights buy from the original US publisher — BC author Jess Driscoll's short book, The Magic of Pockets: A Feminist's Guide to Adding Pockets to Clothing That Really Should Have Pockets to Begin With. That book's less nerdy, more the-book-we've-always-needed-am-I-right.

Recently, your book, The True Cost of Wool, appeared on The Globe and Mail’s bestseller lists. You wrote in your newsletter: “I'm pretty certain this book is a bestseller because of the pre-order campaign we did.” What made this pre-order campaign so successful?

Our readers made this campaign so successful. This book is the second we've published by author Anna Hunter. Her first book was Nine Ten's first full-colour book and also the first we funded through Kickstarter. (I could go on and on about the value to publishers of building relationships with readers, but I already did, in the webinar BNC hosted where I joined Kickstarter Head of Publishing Oriana Leckert to talk about crowdfunding in publishing.) The backers of that book, Sheep, Shepherd & Land, were incredibly enthusiastic, and many have backed the campaigns we've run since. As well, Anna is an incredibly dedicated advocate for the Canadian wool industry — she lectures and leads workshops around the country and writes a regular newsletter. People follow her work, and when they have a chance to, they support her work. The True Cost of Wool is our first self-funded book since we ran that first Kickstarter, which is a big step for Nine Ten. But it was originally planned for September release. When we decided to rush it out three months earlier than planned, because of its relevance to our current conversation in Canada about where our goods come from, I needed to contend with the fact that I hadn't planned for cash flow in the spring to cover printing — I knew one of the first things I'd have to do as we redid the production schedule was list the book in our online shop for pre-order. I asked, and Anna asked, and people pre-ordered in the hundreds. I wasn't surprised, but I was delighted. I did not expect broader demand for the book to be so strong I'd end up putting in for a modest reprint the week of the book's release, but I'm not complaining!

What does it mean to the author to have a bestselling book?

It means that for the rest of her life, she will be "bestselling author Anna Hunter," a descriptor she earned by sharing her vision for the Canadian wool industry in a manner that really, really resonates with a lot of people. I'm so proud of her, and I'm so proud of this book.

What does it mean for Nine Ten Publications to get your books on these lists?

I'm not sure yet! This is, obviously, Nine Ten's first bestseller, so I'm not sure what to expect. I'll forever get to describe our tiny press as having published a bestseller, and I certainly will. I'm hoping it means more readers will find Anna's work. I'm hoping it helps to sell more books. I'm also hoping some publishing-industry folks will want to chat after seeing what I'm sure was an unknown-to-them publisher on that list. Our industry doesn't really open doors for startup presses, which is something I'd very much like to change. I'd love for startups to be able to be a part of publishing trade organizations and conversations instead of having to wait until we're established, which is too late for some of the professional support we could really benefit from in our early years and insights we can provide from our varied perspectives.

Thanks to Kim for taking the time to share with us!

BookNet Canada is the source for national and regional bestseller lists in Canada, including those published by The Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, and the Canadian Independent Booksellers Association through their Indie Bookstores website. Retailers report their weekly book sales to BNC SalesData, then we aggregate that data and create bestseller lists for the media to publish. If you’re interested in learning more about reporting your sales or putting together a bestseller list for your publication or website, get in touch.