Saturday 26 May 2012

Being Featured on Pixel of Ink: What that Really Means for Sales.

As many of you probably already know, in order to create interest and gain readers for my vampire 'Serenity Series', I give away the first book as permanently free on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. I also have a short story prequel, 'The Vengeful Vampire' which is also free.

Giving the books away for free has been a great marketing strategy for me. However, recently both sales and free downloads have slowed down. I'd still been doing pretty well and while more sales are always appreciated, I was earning enough to live on, so I couldn't complain.

Then last night I discovered 'Alone', together with the rest of the series, had been featured on Pixel of Ink. We all know how important it is to get onto sites like Pixel of Ink when we've got freebies out, but I was still shocked when I got up this morning. As expected, free downloads for both 'Alone' and 'The Vengeful Vampire' increased, and I gained over 5000 downloads overnight. 'Alone' is now #2 in Contemporary Fantasy and #111 in the whole of the kindle free store.

What I didn't expect was the huge jump in sales for the other books in the series.

Over the past month I'd plateaued to around 10-15 sales each night on Amazon for each book, which isn't bad, but could be better. But this morning I discovered sales had shot up, with 'Buried', the second book in the series selling over 80 copies overnight and 'Captured' selling 70! Both books are back in the top 100 for Contemporary Fantasy on Amazon!

These results have proven how important it is to get your free books onto sites such as Pixel of Ink, not just for your free downloads, but for the rest of your books as well, especially if you write a series. It also proves that 'free' is still a great marketing strategy, despite the downturn in results people are seeing from KDP Select.

I don't know how long it will last, but for the moment I'm thrilled.

11 comments:

  1. Glad to see that your free strategy is working. I also have free titles but I haven't gotten on Pixel of Ink yet. Any ideas on what you did to be selected??? My sales slowed down this month too :(

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    1. They do have a form you can fill in Elizabeth. I filled it in, but it was a while ago, so I guess patience is needed. I don't know if they have other requirements, like good ratings, but they're always good to have anyway! http://www.pixelofink.com/authors-corner/

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  2. I am not surprised...I know when ppl get a little bit of you under their belt they gant stop reading...you give alot of depth to your characters and it leaves me wanting to peel the layers. I had a mourning period when I finished the Serenity series and so glad they are continuing

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    1. Thank you, Mona! You always have such lovely things to say about my books. Your comments always make me smile! :-)

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  3. Congrats on the success, Marissa. Keep it up, my friend. You're blazing a trail that I fully intend to follow. I hope the weekend it treating you and yours well.

    -Jimmy

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  4. Thanks Jimmy! :-) Hope you had a great weekend as well!

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  5. This is awesome! So excited for you. Love reading this type of stuff. I find it extremely helpful! :)

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  6. Wowsers, very cool, and great to know this information to for us future authors. great blog, new follower...hi!

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