Tag: Downloads

  • The Grand – One Week Later

    The Grand has been officially out for about a week now. I posted the announcement was on my social networking accounts along with a few groups. This release also enabled me to dabble with some advertising campaigns on Amazon, Facebook and Fiverr, to gain some insight with the tools.

    Since The Grand has been officially out, almost 400 copies of the book have been downloaded on both Smashwords and Amazon! The book is seeing much more traffic than The Portrait, which I expected since this is a new release.

    Of note, 100 copies of the book were downloaded before the official release. The Grand has been available for almost a month of certain sites, enabling me to widen availability and make it free on every site before release. Despite there being no involvement on my part, the book was being downloaded regularly on sites where the book was free.

    Another interesting anomaly The Grand was ranked at 7,861 (266 for Horror) on Amazon the day after it was released. Currently it is ranked at 16,518 (435 for Horror) even with a noticeable spike generated by an ad campaign setup through Fiverr. There seems to be no real correlation between ranking and downloads.

    I’m also a bit curious as to why it is ranked under Gothic and Fantasy Romance on Amazon. Although I have a feeling the answer would blow my mind!


  • The Portrait in Print

    Its been a good week for the Portait! A work which was released a little over a year ago.

    On Smashwords the novel broke two-hundred (200) downloads, a definitive sign that even after a year listed the novel still generates some interest. In itself this is impressive, given that I spend very little time trying to advertise the work.

    Views over the last 30 days for The Portrait on Smashwords.
    Download activity over the last 30 days for The Portrait on Smashwords.

    In other news, with the help of Moran Media the design got a makeover and its design was accepted by CreateSpace. Hence the Portrait is now available in print!

    Unlike the Portrait of a Woman, this version is available in black and white. This change radically drops the book’s price; previous versions sold for close to 30$ USD whereas this one sells for under 7$ USD.

    Additional distribution centres were not selected, since that would increase the base price of the book. I suppose if there were ever a demand to open up those channels I may consider it. Until then, better to make it affordable!


  • A Belated Time to Celebrate

    Featured_Belated_Time_To_Celebrated

    I was making sure that all of my storefront links to the Portrait were valid, when I noticed that my novel had reached 150 downloads on Smashwords.  Well it is 151 because I was rather late in noticing the milestone.

    My decision to target Smashwords seems to have been a good one.  Here are some reasons why:

    • Smashwords has enabled me to target other sites such as Kobo, iBooks, Scribd and Barnes and Nobel without creating individual accounts.
    • Smashwords has a user community of its own and have left more comments than any other.
    • Smashwords has not buried my book under tons of new material.  I still get views, even if the downloads have waned. I have to be realistic, pushing people to view and download a book can be a full-time job all by itself!
    Smashwords-Chart-Views-Portrait-Aug-16
    Last 30 Days of Statistics for the Portrait Page Views
    Smashwords-Chart-Downloads-Portrait-Aug-16
    Last 30 Days of Statistics for the Portrait Downloads

    While this is an achievement (albeit a minor one), I did not feel it was worth the effort or calorie intake to make a full-sized frosted cake.  I will save that type of indulgence for later!


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