To effectively understand the lifecycle of your book, it's important to understand some of the language and shorthand the publishing industry uses. Below is a list of terms you may encounter.
Author Advocate: Anyone who is there to help promote you and your work is considered an author advocate. We as your publisher are one of your advocates, but this role can range from friends and family members who go out asking local bookstores to carry your work, booksellers who hand sell your books to customers, to a publicist you hire to help book events and solicit press for your title, and anyone in between. No one succeeds as an author on their own, and the more people advocating for your work, the better it will do in the long run.
Backlist: After the initial release period, a book goes into the backlist. By industry standards, this is when the book is still available, but the initial marketing efforts for the book have completed. This typically begins 6 months after the book's release date until it is no longer in print.
Frontlist: Once a book is released, it is considered a frontlist title. This means it is at the front of the distributor's listings, and in most cases will be featured will be featured in the "New Release" section of a bookstore. This period begins from Day 1 of the book's release and typically runs for six months.
Marketing Touchpoint: This is any interaction a potential reader might have with your book. It could be anything from seeing a social media post online about the book, reading a review, passing a billboard for the book, spotting it on the shelves of a bookstore, a friend recommending the book, etc. Current market research suggests the average reader will need 7 marketing touchpoints before they make a decision about whether they want to purchase a book.
Metadata: These are the behind the scenes details about the book that help categorize it for book-buyers. Metadata covers a broad range of topics including genre, targeted demographics, relevant keywords, synopsis, reviews, details about the author and their previous work. The better the book's metadata, the easier it is for book-buyers to make decisions about the book.
Pre-awareness: Any promotion and marketing done for the book prior to its release. The more interest a book can generate through its pre-awareness efforts, the better chance it stands of getting picked up by bookstores and potential readers.
Preorder Period: A book's preorder period is the timeframe when retailers and customers can begin placing orders for the book prior to its initial release. This will also be the point when we begin kicking off some of the marketing efforts to begin pre-awareness for the book.
Release Date: This is the day your book will officially be released in bookstores. This can mean, it will be on shelves in brick and mortar bookstores, or online stores will begin fulfilling orders.
Restock: If a book sells well at a bookstore, it is possible it will go into restock (sometimes called reorder). This means that the bookshop will make sure it always has the book on its shelves, ordering more whenever their inventory is depleted. This is an important milestone for a book to hit. A book on a weekly restock at just ten bookstores can equate to selling over 500 copies of a book a year.