How I Spectacularly Botched Spectacularly Botching My Pre-Orders

A Literal Literary Loser Learns Her Lesson

On April 24, 2025, I wrote a post called How I Spectacularly Botched My Pre-Orders. In it, I confessed that, during the month of March, despite diligently writing guest posts, and being interviewed, and a handful of early reviews, and lots and lots of social media promotion, in the month of March I sold… zero copies of my May 1, 2025 historical fiction novel, “Go On Pretending.”

I reported: That’s right: Zero. I did not sell a single copy of “Go On Pretending” in March.

That didn’t seem to be a very good sign, did it? I then wrote a few more paragraphs about why I thought that happened, and reiterated my oft-repeated refrain that, when it comes to publishing, nobody knows anything.

Now, because I happen to have a very supportive publisher, he reads my Substack. And, after I published the above, he emailed me to say:

Hi Alina,

I just read your Substack Post. It's interesting... but I also hope you know that pre-sale data doesn't populate on Ingram until just before or after your launch date. The only data you've seen is from our online shop. I'm hopeful that once data comes in from other retailers, the pre-order numbers will be much higher. On KDP for instance, there are 23 pre-orders. That's good news because not all ebook buyers are routed through KDP (there are two listings on Amazon. One from KDP and one from Ingram).

We'll have a better idea of pre-order and sales data by June, but for now 90% of your pre-orders haven't been reported.

Oh.

Remember how I said that nobody knows anything? Please add me to that list.

I did not know that.

“Go On Pretending” sold 5 copies in December, 3 in January, 9 in February, and 0 (as I may have mentioned) in March. But that wasn’t total sales from all platforms. That was just direct sales.

Oh.

“Go On Pretending” officially released on May 1, 2025. It promptly became the #1 best-seller on Amazon in New Political Historical Fiction, New Russian Historical Fiction, and, within a few days, even in general Russian Historical Fiction (ahead of Martin Cruz Smith, who kept me from being #1 during the pre-order stage; take that, you best-selling author for the last four decades!).

How many books did it take to put me in that position? I don’t know. Those would have been May sales, and, like my publisher said, we won’t have that data until June.

All we know now is that, for the month of April, “Go On Pretending” sold 16 copies directly, and 22 via Ingram. (Were those the pre-orders? I was promised 23 KDP pre-orders. Who changed their mind? I’ll hunt you down!)

Also in May was my festive book launch at My Biblioteka in Brooklyn. (Yes, as you insisted, I brought caviar. It was a huge hit! Good call, readers!) I sold as many books that night as I had in my pre-order stage. Yay, in person book readers! I love you all!

For the folks who came out that night, I personally signed copies. For those who couldn’t make it (and/or watched the live stream - I had as many people on the live stream as I did in person, which was pretty darn cool, yay, technology!), I pre-signed some books, and they are available for purchase to be shipped to you via this link.

For now, “Go On Pretending” is still #1 in New Historical Russian Fiction on Amazon. It is also still on sale for $1.99, so grab your digital copy there, and your autographed paperback copy at My Biblioteka. (Or get both directly from the publisher.)

I’ll be back in June to report more numbers and reveal whether or not I continue to be a Literal Literary Loser. Or whether I finally learned something….

And if you missed the live stream, check it out below!