I’ve had a lot of people ask how they can best support me as an author, or support authors whose work they like in general. And while I can’t speak for all authors–for example, I have no idea how you support a NYT bestseller, because I’m not one–I have one key thing you can do for midlist authors like me. And no, I’m not going to talk about leaving reviews (but please, do that too.)

If you know you’re going to buy the book anyway, and you can afford it, buy the book the first week. If you can’t do that, buy it the first month.

Please don’t get me wrong. Any sale is a good sale, and you should buy what you want, when you want. I’m offering this only from an author perspective for those people who are specifically looking to help.

Here’s why it helps:

1. It helps my book get visibility. While all of my books so far have continued to sell over time, you’re never going to sell more books than you do in the first week or two (excluding a sale.) Since so many sales are online, there’s a great benefit to sales rankings on various sites. The short version of that is this: The more you sell in a short period of time, the more people see your book. So books that sell well then sell even more, because they’re more visible.

Here’s how that has worked for me. I sell a lot of audio books. There are a few reasons for this. I had a great narrator, for one, but also in general military SF does well on audio. It’s that second point that matters here. When my books release, they go onto the ranking charts for Audible’s military SF category. If someone who is looking for a military SF book clicks on the generic category for Military SF, it will show them, on the first page, the six books ranked highest in sales using a formula that is very weighted toward the most recent sales. So while I’m not ever going to sell as many audio books as say, Craig Alanson, I might sell more than he does for a specific week.

In fact SPACESIDE, my second book, went to number one in its category the first week it came out. What that does is help more people discover my books, and I absolutely saw the result. The result I saw? Sales of the PLANETSIDE audiobook, the first book, went up by about four-fold and stayed that way for a couple of months.

And it works that way for e-books and print books as well (I used audio because that’s where it most applies to me personally.) By buying a book in the first week it’s out, you help the buzz for that book (or, if you’re a nerd like me, you could say you help the algorithm) and you help more people see it.

There are a lot of factors beyond the author’s control in these sorts of things. Your spot on the list has a lot to do with the other books released right around the same time as yours. Or, like with COLONYSIDE, you might launch your full price book on the same day that a major sale starts on a bunch of other titles, pushing you off of the first page. Things happen.

2. A lot of decisions are based on early sales. Once again, I caveat by saying that this is from my view, as an author. Publishers may have different opinions. But I know a lot of authors and we talk. And while every author is on a different deal and in a different situation, a lot of traditionally published authors are on short contracts — one or two books. And they’re often looking for a new deal right around right around the 45 day mark after their book released. This doesn’t apply to your bestsellers, your superstars. But the vast majority of authors aren’t that.

Why 45 days? Well, often it’s written right into the contract. But even if it isn’t, that’s enough time for the publisher to decide whether or not they want to invest more money into an author. Because let’s be real: ideas and pitches are nice, but publishing is a business. The next offer comes because the publisher thinks they can make money.

I saw this specifically play out with my second contract with Harper Voyager. PLANETSIDE had released, and it was doing well with early sales. Yay! My contract said that I could propose new books 45 days after acceptance of my second book, and I send in my proposals right on that day. Why? Because acceptance meant I was done with book 2, and I needed to know what to write next.

Because PLANETSIDE was doing well right out of the gate, my publisher made me an offer for my proposed COLONYSIDE, and my agent quickly negotiated that offer to double what they paid me for PLANETSIDE. It was an easy deal to take, and it was done fast. Bottom line: If PLANETSIDE hadn’t done well right away, there might not be a COLONYSIDE at all. (Note: this is also a reason why you need to buy books in a series before the series is complete. Because if it doesn’t sell, there might never be a complete series. It happens.)

Now, PLANETSIDE has continued to sell. It has what we call ‘a long tail.’ So maybe I’d have gotten the chance to write book three anyway, somewhere down the line. But there’s at least as much chance that I’d have moved on to something else, or even to another publisher.

Which leads us to the size of the offer. For a mid-list author staying with the same publisher, there’s not a ton of negotiation on price. Because everybody has the same information. Everybody knows the sales, and those numbers aren’t opinions. They’re facts. They are a black and white accounting of what you made for the publisher. So if we’re making decisions at 45 days on a new contract, we also have a good idea of the value of that contract. And that value can affect a lot of things.

I’m going to burst some bubbles here, but sometimes authors make commercial decisions. I know it’s romantic to think that we’re artists, and we just follow the art that’s in our souls…and I’m sure some authors write whatever speaks to them, regardless of if they can sell it or not. And on the other end of the spectrum? There are some authors who are working to maximize how much they make, regardless of what that means for them artistically. Which is fine. Writers have to eat too.

For me, and probably the majority of authors? It’s somewhere between those two extremes. I want to do the projects that are speaking to me the most, but I’m also human. Am I willing to take less than top dollar? Sure. I just did that. I wanted to write a generation ship book–it’s my dream project–and Harper Voyager made me a very nice offer to write it, which I accepted. Could I have made more money writing Planetside 4 or The Misfit Soldier 2 or a host of other military SF projects? Almost certainly. But the money was close enough where I could justify following my heart and doing the project I want to do with the editor with whom I want to do it.

3. Early purchase and early reading of a book can add to the conversation.

Ask any midlist author how to best market/promote a book, and you’re going to get a reaction somewhere between a resigned shrug and a full on scream of frustration. We don’t know. Seriously. None of us.

What we do know? Word of mouth is still the best way to sell books. So if you buy it early and read it early? That’s a double win.

4. But what about pre-orders? Aren’t pre-orders better than buying it on the day of release?

It depends.

Let me be clear. Everybody loves a pre-order. If you’re a pre-orderer of books, you are a hero to the book community.

But pre-orders mean different things to different authors, and they aren’t always better than a first week sale.

a. Pre-orders mostly help with physical copies. There are a few reasons for this. One, if you get a LOT of pre-orders, you might motivate the publisher to do a bigger print run. Two, if there are a good number of pre-orders, you might motivate retailers to order more copies. Three, even a single pre-order at an indie bookstore might motivate that store to carry a book that it wouldn’t have otherwise carried (I would suggest that pre-ordering a book at an indie store is the single most significant thing you can do to support a small to mid-tier author). With physical copies, it’s all about getting more books into circulation.

And then there’s the outlier. That there are enough pre-orders where the publisher takes notice and decides to put more marketing push behind the book. I’d suggest that this is really, really uncommon. But in the case that it does happen, it’s also career altering.

As a rule, I’d offer that pre-orders for physical copies are even better than first week sales.

b. Pre-orders for digital copies are less important. Nobody has to print more digital copies. Nobody has to order more digital copies. So really none of the reasons above apply except for the last one–the major outlier.

With that said, a pre-order is still great. It still goes into those early sales numbers, and really good digital pre-order sales might even shorten that 45 day window. But probably not.

Take everything I’ve said about pre-orders with a grain of salt. There are definitely differing opinions on the matter. But this is how I see it as it affects me, so I’d suggest it affects a lot of authors like me the same way as well.

Let me conclude by reiterating this: Do what you want. I am in no way trying to guilt, cajole, or shame you into buying books early. I specifically share this because readers are wonderful, and I’ve been asked many times ‘How can I support you?’

Any sale is a good sale. If you’ve bought any of my books, I’m very appreciative. So is any author whose book you bought. Thanks. I really mean it. But if you bought it in the first week it was out? Double thanks.