Mod work doesn't end once you've got your shop graphics up and everything is ready for selling. Now you have to sell the hell out of your zine. If you've laid down the groundwork well, you should come out strong -- in the most profitable zines I've modded, the first week was the strongest sales week. Just take a look at the aggregated charts of the sales data below to see that sales generally start strong on the first week, dip at its lowest on the third, and then slowly pick back up on sales toward the end of the preorder period.

Some caveats here:

• Preorder periods varied from 6-10 weeks, so that curve may not be super clear to see. Production periods cover the time when physical zines could not be purchased -- save for one exception -- and only digital sales are available.
• Other projects experienced stronger sales at the end -- that was when they were trying to hit more stretch goals.
• "Generating early excitement" is easier said than done, and takes into consideration how appealing your zine theme/lineup/etc has been so far.

While it may look like the middle weeks are a lost cause, keep in mind that it doesn't excuse you from working to spread the word -- that's a huge part of your job. Energize your contributors to share their previews, stay on top of where those previews are shared, keep thinking of new ways to present your zine and entice your audience to purchase your product.

Obviously, and this is important, I can't speak to the overall marketability of your project already, and that does play a bigger role in your project's success than you might want to consider. But it can't hurt to do more, either, and it would be a missed opportunity not to try.

Possible Marketing Tactics:

• Incentivize early purchases. This might require some pre-preorder hype, as well as the assumption that your incentives are actually attractive, but some zines will give away bonus items for the first X buyers, or for packages purchased in the first day. Just be sure when you do this that you are able to execute fulfillment on the back end, too, and it isn't too complicated to carry out for your shipping mod.
• Post teasers, previews, etc. Don't let up on posting content during the entirety of your preorder period. Make sure your contributors are posting previews -- as much as possible, it helps to have contributors post themselves instead of retweeting from your posts (keep in mind followers can turn off retweets from accounts). If you can repurpose all the pieces into mini-teasers of some kind, do that too. Prospective buyers want to get a taste of what they are getting and it can't hurt to keep these things top of mind for them during a long preorder period.
• Get a hard copy proof of the finished product. In the same vein as above, I always try to showcase a hard copy proof of the zine in the middle of the preorder period. One, it shows you're ready to make this a reality. Two, now there's no doubt at all what the zine will look like.
• Mid-preorder incentives. Are there special events/holidays in the middle of your preorder period you can use, any sales (I don't like doing sales a lot, but maybe you can give shipping discounts or something similar) you can run?
• Zine-exclusive pieces. I would never require total zine exclusivity from contributors, but I've found that simply asking them if their piece is zine-exclusive (meaning they won't post it publicly even when the zine is done) has yielded a few volunteers, which I've then been able to dangle as an added incentive for purchasing a zine.