"Jay, why are preorders important for books?"

"Down sit you, youngling, and explain to you, let me."

It's pretty simple, really.

Preorders send a signal to publishers and booksellers that people are excited for the book. Basically, it's one thing to buy a book, it's another thing entirely to be so excited about it that you PAY FOR IT BEFORE IT EXISTS.

When a publisher sees preorder numbers going up, they *may* be inclined to increase their marketing efforts to further raise the books profile, which is kinda counterintuitive, but that's marketing for you.

"Hey, people want this thing. Let us make them want it more."

When booksellers see preorders rising, they *may* be inclined to increase their buy (ie, investment) in stocks of the book, which *may* leads to higher in-store profile, shelf-talkers, good placement, etc

"Well, we ordered a hundred of these fkn things, we better fkn sell them."

All this *may* lead to greater "buzz" (a bullshit word, and nebulous concept, but that's marketing) about the book.

Its profile is raised in collective consciousness, which *may* prompt MORE preorders, which *may* prompt even higher publisher/seller investment, and around we go

Note the emphasis on the *mays*. None of this is science. Speaking as someone who worked in marketing/advertising for over a decade, it looks a lot like this behind the curtain:

TLDR: Along with pushing the book on your friends/mutuals, preorders are the best way to support an author you love.

Endeth the lesson, here does.