How to pre-order my book 'In Spite of You', and the many compelling reasons for why you should do just that

In Spite of You is out on August 1st, and that's TERRIFYING

Back in the dark days of Patrick Lenton lore, I used to work in trade publishing in marketing, where every day I’d put on my tight little pants and waddle into the office and help other authors sell their books. You might say that spending my day promoting other people’s books compelled me to take a leap and go write my own novel, or you could say that I got made redundant - both pertinent points.

One of the defining metaphors that we used when selling books was the concept of a “roll of the dice” - touching on the fact that the success of a book often came down to nothing more than luck.

But in a mechanic that is familiar to players of Dungeons and Dragons, the idea is to fill up your toss with as many dice as possible, to that you’re giving fate as much as possible to work with, and achieve the highest score. Each dice can be the smallest thing - a recommendation from a friend on social media, your mum bullying the local bookstore into ordering copies for the entire family, 7000 annoying social media posts, a well-written and earnest newsletter article - and even if you’re adding just a handful of d4s into the mix, DnD players understand that sometimes it’s exactly what you need to score a high enough role for whatever nerd shit you’re attempting. We must beat the armour class of a book industry hostile to queer authors.

It doesn’t feel particularly good trying to promote your own book - it’s so wrapped up in my own concept of self worth that it’s impossible to be chill about it. But I also see so many debut authors worry too much about being “annoying” when promoting. What I always think about is when my first book of short stories came out I was SO worried about being cringe and annoying online, and tried to do it in a “cool” way, just kinda winky little cool guy nods. As a result, one of my closer friends saw me on the street two months after the book launched and was like “when is your launch, I can’t wait!”

Never again. I will now scream in the face of god himself and make sure his entire choir of angels buy my book.

Because this book is so important to me, I’m not going to shy away from hoovering up as many little dice as possible to make my roll of the dice as effective as possible - and one of the best dice to add to the pile is making sure people pre-order the book.

Why is pre-ordering so good? What’s the big deal?

• The number of pre-orders your book has signals to the publisher, bookstores, libraries (and the publishing industry as a whole) that people are interested in your book. And having a large number of pre-orders of your book makes people sit up and pay attention to you, particularly if you're a debut author. Bookstores who might not know who I am or how brilliant my book is, might only order in one or two copies - that’s a standard number for a debut author. But if they see people pre-ordering like mad, then they might decide to order in more.

• Doesn’t matter how many fancy bells and whistles you have, all we’re trying to do is generate word of mouth. Getting people interested and excited in my book enough to recommend it to other people is ultimately what sells a book - and at the end of the day, bookshop workers and librarians are people (the best people). Pre-ordering can help these people learn about my book (think about how many books they see a week) and get excited - and if they love the book, they recommend it to customers.

• Some book stores have bestseller lists! For example, getting on the bestseller list at Readings in my first week of release would be both amazing and important - it’s more marketing and visibility and therefore sales. And you know what counts towards those lists? You guessed it - pre-orders

• And how cool to just have the book out in the world immediately! When you performatively read it at a cafe, you not only look cool and hot, you are also being a grass roots influencer, a conscripted member of my street team.

Just some places I love that you can pre-order ‘In Spite of You’

Melbourne:

Readings: I’m having my launch at Readings in Carlton, because I wanted to have the quintessential Melbourne book launch experience. I think it’s the bookstore I’ve been to the most for launches. There’s also a bunch of different stores around - Readings Hawthorn is probably the only thing I liked about Hawthorn actually. I launched one of Jodi McAlister’s books at Readings Emporium.

Brunswick Bound: My local bookstore, crewed by absolute angels. I was meant to launch my last book of short stories, Sexy Tales of Paleontology, at Brunswick Bound’s store, but alas I was coronavirused. They were so lovely and hosted it online instead. Support indie bookshops!

Hares and Hyenas: queer bookshop icons who I adore, and who have supported me many times, and who deserve our support, because we need to support queer bookshops and queer authors. It’s not up JUST yet with them, but it will be.

Sydney:

Better Read Than Dead: I’ve launched THREE other people’s books at Better Read Than Dead, so I’m very excited to launch my own there in Sydney too. Having lived in Newtown for most of my adult life, I think I’ve spent more time in this shop than any other establishment in the world. Once a dog ran into the store while it was just me and a worker and we looked after it for an hour before the owner came in.

The Bookshop Darlinghurst: MORE QUEER BOOKSTORES! This place is an ESTABLISHMENT and I love it. When I went and visited this store, I was quizzed on “just how much analingus is in the book”. They have their priorities right.

Kinokuniya: a goddamn WONDERLAND for book lovers. I launched one of my first books there, and it was an amazing thrill seeing it in the new release section. I’ve also helped a couple of authors, including the wonderful Julie Koh, launch their books here.

Gleebooks: I did my first ever public reading of a story I’d written here, when it was selected for the Best Australian Writing anthology back in 2007. Obsessed ever since. David Marr came up to me and told me he liked me writing, and I was just a weird little boy.

Brisbane:

Avid Reader: the greatest and also only bookshop I’ve ever been to in Brisbane. At one point I knew an absolute ton of people who worked there, but then they all moved to Melbourne.

Adelaide:

Dymocks Adelaide: I did an event at Dymock’s Adelaide last year and I was blown away by how beautiful this store is! It’s in an old theatre, which is perfect for someone like me, who loves to write and also be on the stage darling. That said, you can buy it at any Dymocks.

Online:

Booktopia? Amazon? Various other online retailers? It’s all there. It’s all there. If you’re not in Australia, this might be one of the best options for you!

Ebooks and Audiobooks

It will have both. Don’t panic.

Come to my launch why not?

I’m having a launch in Melbourne and Sydney, and then a whole bunch of other events in other places later, but the launches are what we focus on! Why don’t you come?

Also, I stole this entire concept from my friend Patrick Marlborough, whose book Nock Loose just came out, and you should go read it.