# Pixel of Ink - Huge let down



## AlpacaAl (Feb 8, 2013)

Two weeks ago, when it was announced that POI were now taking submissions again, I submitted one of my books and was accepted. I paid the money and then proceeded to build a promotion around those dates (no Bookbub). As I have used most sites more than once, POI was the cornerstone as I wanted to reach new readers. Now, on the day of the promotion I get an email from Booksends (their new partner) telling me that POI have refused to run the book. Not a good fit for their readers apparently. Which would be fine, but why not tell me when I submit? I am fuming and I can't even speak to POI themselves as Booksends seem to be the gatekeeper!!


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Is today the day of promo?  If so, PM with the details.  I run a FB page (I usually charge 6 dollars for a post/promo, but I'll be happy to help out) and I'll run it.  I can't tell the genre, but I run most everything (cozy does the best) and I don't have pricing or review requirements.  Let me know if there IS a price cut for the promo and I'll be sure to mention it (and how long the price is good).


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## AlpacaAl (Feb 8, 2013)

Thanks Maria!


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## Donna White Glaser (Jan 12, 2011)

Wait. They accepted your book and then unaccepted it?


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## AlpacaAl (Feb 8, 2013)

Yep. Accepted two weeks ago. Apparently Booksends vet the submissions. They accepted and took my payment. And then today they emailed to say POI said no. It didnt meet their standards (been on Bookbub many times by the way). Even if POI said no, surely they can say no at the time of submission. I am so angry!


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Do they not take non-fiction?  I thought at first they were children's books, but I see they are non-fiction and the covers on Amazon look like they fit the book okay (non-fiction although illustrated.)  

Weird.  Well, never mind them.  I'll get something posted.


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## AlpacaAl (Feb 8, 2013)

Thanks Maria. They are lighthearted memoirs in the style of Driving over Lemons, A Year in Provence or A Streetcat Named Bob. A mix of animals and moving to Spain to start a new life. Difficult for covers in that genre. I love the covers but some people do think 'children'.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Got it. Here's the post at the blog:

http://www.bearmountainbooks.com/home/seriously-mum-whats-an-alpaca/

That was "pushed" directly to the FB page here:

https://www.facebook.com/BearMountainBooks

Anyone who is on FB and want to help--share it and any of the other posts that you see that you like (HINT: There is a post about Harvey's book out there --Stone and Silt. It's down a ways, but don't let that slow you down.)


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## Christine_C (Jun 29, 2014)

ARGH how frustrating! I'm trying out POI soon. I hope this is isn't how they operate in general.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Does anyone have recent experience with PoI? They used to do extremely well but I haven't heard anything about their results in a very long time.


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## Antara Mann (Nov 24, 2014)

I saw that on Booksends too. Did they return your money? They charge pretty steep for POI by the way - something like 100$ if not more.


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## mythsnake (Oct 22, 2014)

Wow, this makes me really nervous about my upcoming promo with POI. If they pull this crap with me, I will demand a refund, for I signed up for this promo to be in POI, not Booksends (which was definitely not worth the money the last time I did a promo with them).


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

If I were accepted by an advertiser, billed for the ad, paid it, and then on the day it was to come out, was rejected, I know exactly what I'd do. I'd send them an invoice for the paid ad, plus lost revenue. If they balked on paying it, I'd have my attorney email them and if necessary, proceed to file a lawsuit that would also include attorney fees, court costs and sell through revenue lost.

If everything you mentioned is true, this is most unprofessional. I was planning to use POI as a runup to a BookBub promo I'm having next month, but won't be applying to either them or BookSends now.


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## jrwilson (Apr 7, 2015)

That's horrible.  Pixel of Ink had such a good reputation.  I'm surprised they would cancel an ad at the last minute.  That's terribly shady.


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## AlpacaAl (Feb 8, 2013)

I want to now add that POI have relented and added my book to their posts for today. I am very grateful to Jason at Booksends for fighting my corner for me.


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## AlpacaAl (Feb 8, 2013)

BTW they had refunded me.


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## Guest (Sep 19, 2015)

Well, this answers my question as to whether I should apply for a POI ad. If they feel they don't even have to deliver on what you're paying them for, I really have no desire to do business with them at all.


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## AlpacaAl (Feb 8, 2013)

It might be teething troubles with the new partnership with Booksends, but it is a concern for me. My main problem was hat they accepted and I built the promos around that.


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## Holly A Hook (Sep 19, 2010)

AlpacaAl said:


> I want to now add that POI have relented and added my book to their posts for today. I am very grateful to Jason at Booksends for fighting my corner for me.


Glad to hear that. These ads aren't cheap and that's great of Jason to do that.

I have one scheduled already for October 10. POI always used to tell me my book wasn't a good fit for their readers, so I'm worried they're going to try pulling this when it's my turn.


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## AlpacaAl (Feb 8, 2013)

Hopefully they wont try and pull anything like this again.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

I really don't understand why the anger is being aimed at Pixel of Ink and not Booksends. You booked your promo through Booksends, and they were the ones that didn't deliver. It sounds like Booksends doesn't have a strong enough process in place with Pixel of Ink. 

Booksends should never have publicized their partnership with Pixel of Ink if a situation like this was even remotely possible. You simply don't offer something if you can't guarantee delivery. That's not acceptable.


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## JalexM (May 14, 2015)

jakedfw said:


> I really don't understand why the anger is being aimed at Pixel of Ink and not Booksends. You booked your promo through Booksends, and they were the ones that didn't deliver. It sounds like Booksends doesn't have a strong enough process in place with Pixel of Ink.
> 
> Booksends should never have publicized their partnership with Pixel of Ink if a situation like this was even remotely possible. You simply don't offer something if you can't guarantee delivery. That's not acceptable.


He booked through POI not booksends. Booksends is partnered with POI so I guess they take care of the submissions. They're forms are basically the same now.


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## Guest (Sep 20, 2015)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> If I were accepted by an advertiser, billed for the ad, paid it, and then on the day it was to come out, was rejected, I know exactly what I'd do. I'd send them an invoice for the paid ad, plus lost revenue. If they balked on paying it, I'd have my attorney email them and if necessary, proceed to file a lawsuit that would also include attorney fees, court costs and sell through revenue lost.
> 
> If everything you mentioned is true, this is most unprofessional. I was planning to use POI as a runup to a BookBub promo I'm having next month, but won't be applying to either them or BookSends now.


Spoken by someone who has the money to back up his actions. Nice to see you standing behind the little(r) guy, though.


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## Guest (Sep 20, 2015)

FWIW, I used BookSends back in July and had great results with them. I think they were actually my top performer of the promo sites I was able to book. Perhaps this new partnership is just causing lots of issues, and POI shouldn't have reopened to submissions until they'd worked out the kinks.

I'm also wondering now if I'll be automatically rejected by POI if it's partnered with BookSends now since it has been less then 90 days since my promo with BookSends. Geez, they can make this so difficult for us indie authors :-/ 

Of course, I didn't realize their price tags were so steep either.


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## 60169 (May 18, 2012)

mshistory said:


> I'm also wondering now if I'll be automatically rejected by POI if it's partnered with BookSends now since it has been less then 90 days since my promo with BookSends.


That's exactly what happened to a friend of mine - they had been featured in Booksends within the last 90 days, so they were rejected for all three POI, Booksends, and eReaderIQ.


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## Guest (Sep 20, 2015)

Shawn Inmon said:


> That's exactly what happened to a friend of mine - they had been featured in Booksends within the last 90 days, so they were rejected for all three POI, Booksends, and eReaderIQ.


Ah, oh well. I'll try again in late October  Thanks for the response! Now I won't be waiting on that email from them


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

MariaESchneider said:


> Got it. Here's the post at the blog:
> 
> http://www.bearmountainbooks.com/home/seriously-mum-whats-an-alpaca/
> 
> ...


I shared it earlier today.

Good luck.


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

AlpacaAl said:


> BTW they had refunded me.


Yeah, but the point being you went ahead and paid for other promos BASED on the fact POI had accepted you. Trying to back out on the day of the promo is not cool. It's great they changed their mind and ran it anyway. Hopefully, this was just a glitch and it won't happen again.


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## barbie888 (Aug 26, 2013)

This makes me think they read kboards. They would not want to get a bad business reputation with authors. Because yeah, we talk!


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

Okay, this is just confusing and not making sense to me.



> He booked through POI not booksends.


Well, then why did he type this:



> Now, on the day of the promotion I get an email from Booksends (their new partner) telling me that POI have refused to run the book.


So what role does Booksends play? It sounds like Booksends is the booking agent for Pixel of Ink. If that's the case and booking goes wrong, then I'm blaming Booksends, not Pixel of Ink. I mean, if I use a travel agent to book a hotel, and when I get to the hotel, and the hotel says that my travel agent misled me... the hotel actually did not have a room available, I'm not going to blame the hotel.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

jakedfw said:


> Okay, this is just confusing and not making sense to me.
> 
> Well, then why did he type this:
> 
> So what role does Booksends play? It sounds like Booksends is the booking agent for Pixel of Ink. If that's the case and booking goes wrong, then I'm blaming Booksends, not Pixel of Ink. I mean, if I use a travel agent to book a hotel, and when I get to the hotel, and the hotel says that my travel agent misled me... the hotel actually did not have a room available, I'm not going to blame the hotel.


Booksends is a _partner_, not a booking agent, and the submission is done through the PoI site, not through the Booksends site. They have equal responsibility.

Happily it all worked out, so it's really a moot point.


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## D-C (Jan 13, 2014)

barbie888 said:


> This makes me think they read kboards.


They do


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## AlpacaAl (Feb 8, 2013)

Just to clear it up for you - if you book a promo through either POI or Booksends, it goes to Booksends to be processed. Booksends say yes or no. They said yes to me two weeks ago. Obviously then they pass on those submissions to POI. Then I got an email from Booksends yesterday telling me that POI said it didnt fit their criteria and wouldnt run. So it was POI that I was angry at, as they should have run it as they have handed over responisibility for the submissions to Booksends. If they had come back to me two weeks ago and said "Actually we can't run this" I would have still been angry, but not so much as on the day of the promo.


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

I'm finding this confusing as well. It seems that Booksends say yes to submissions and take or instigate payment but without knowing whether the ad will actually run because that's POI's call. They make that call on the date of the ad by which time the subscriber had potentially placed lots more ads to run around the POI ad. Wow - sounds like a recipe for disaster. Glad it seems to have been averted in the OP's case, but there could be other cases whch don't have such a happy ending.


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## AlpacaAl (Feb 8, 2013)

Yep, that is exactly what happened to me. Will be interesting to see what happens. I would imagine they will run everyone who has been accepted now, and tighten up. They sorted is, almost as soon as this thread on kboards got going  Funny that!


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Wouldn't it make sense for them to actually consult with each other before giving the go-ahead?

I have one booked at the end of this month. I booked it because of POI and ereaderIQ. Booksends is too overpriced for what they deliver by themselves, so I'be supremely pissed off if one of the pulls out.


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## Holly A Hook (Sep 19, 2010)

Patty Jansen said:


> Wouldn't it make sense for them to actually consult with each other before giving the go-ahead?
> 
> I have one booked at the end of this month. I booked it because of POI and ereaderIQ. Booksends is too overpriced for what they deliver by themselves, so I'be supremely p*ssed off if one of the pulls out.


I don't blame you. Be sure to let us know how it goes!

I'm also building a promo around my ad for the 10th and I know many others have ads booked, too. If they want to reject your book, they should definitely do it before you pay and plan around the ad. Something like this could definitely ruin someone's well-planned out promo.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Patty Jansen said:


> Wouldn't it make sense for them to actually consult with each other before giving the go-ahead?


This. Booksends should not collect payment until the booking is actually confirmed.


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

It sounds like "the glitch" was in the agreement between POI and Booksends. Booksends simply hadn't been informed in all of the criteria POI uses to vet books. Now that they know, this glitch shouldn't happen again. 

And hopefully, if Booksends submits a book that POI feels shouldn't be run on their site, they'll run it anyay AND inform BS to not okay books of that nature again.


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## lindajoysiegel (May 17, 2015)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

You got your promotion because they did damage control. If you hadn't shared your experience here, you wouldn't have had it.

Based on an experience I had with BookSends and POI early in the month, BookSends is the gatekeeper for POI and Jason calls the shots. I don't know if BookSends is showing the full price list now, but at the time I booked the promo I didn't see the POI price list. There was just a box to check if I wanted to add POI to my BookSends promo. I canceled my promo after I saw the POI price list and my money was promptly refunded. It was a frustrating experience. I noticed that BookSends has literally doubled its prices since it has taken over POI.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Marian said:


> You got your promotion because they did damage control. If you hadn't shared your experience here, you wouldn't have had it.
> 
> Based on an experience I had with BookSends and POI early in the month, BookSends is the gatekeeper for POI and Jason calls the shots. I don't know if BookSends is showing the full price list now, but at the time I booked the promo I didn't see the POI price list. There was just a box to check if I wanted to add POI to my BookSends promo. I canceled my promo after I saw the POI price list and my money was promptly refunded. It was a frustrating experience. I noticed that BookSends has literally doubled its prices since it has taken over POI.


I don't get this. You use the POI site to book. Booksends (which I don't use because it's useless and overpriced) charges something like $100 for a promotion, through POI it's $55 plus optional add-ons. I booked the EreaderIQ list but gave the Booksends FB update a miss. The promo cost $65. It will run next week, so I don't know any results yet.


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## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

SkyScribe said:


> People don't book as many ads as I do, so I don't blame them for not paying attention as closely. The prices that were listed on Pixel of Ink included both Pixel and BookSends. For your $55, that's $25 to BookSends and $30 to Pixel. No clue what your $100 is in reference to. With just these two sites on a $100 mysteries ad, I had a 4X ROI including KENP. So yeh, absolutely useless and overpriced. It should've been free!


Would you pass along a link to the POI submission page? When I go onto POI and try and place an ad, it just re-directs me to Book Sends. 
Thanks.


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## G. (Aug 21, 2014)

David Chill said:


> Would you pass along a link to the POI submission page? When I go onto POI and try and place an ad, it just re-directs me to Book Sends.
> Thanks.


I did the same and submitted through Booksends. Just a click on the submission form to include POI for $30.


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## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

G. said:


> I did the same and submitted through Booksends. Just a click on the submission form to include POI for $30.


Ah yes. And it says "click the box to be CONSIDERED for Pixel Of Ink"

Didn't see the part about $30 extra for POI, but I imagine it is well worth the cost.


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

Patty Jansen said:


> I don't get this. You use the POI site to book. Booksends (which I don't use because it's useless and overpriced) charges something like $100 for a promotion, through POI it's $55 plus optional add-ons. I booked the EreaderIQ list but gave the Booksends FB update a miss. The promo cost $65. It will run next week, so I don't know any results yet.


I didn't use the POI site to book a promo. I used the BookSends site. I didn't see a POI price list. I was buying blind. A price list for POI wasn't posted on the BookSends site. Maybe it's posted there now, but it wasn't then. There was a box to check if I also wanted POI. I checked the box, and the price went from $20 to $100. My book could be either literary fiction or Women's fiction. A few days later I saw the POI price list and was shocked. The same ad I had paid $100 for would be $50 in literary fiction so I asked that it be placed in literary fiction. Jason refused. He wanted $100. I asked for my money back. As I recall, Women's fiction has only 2,000 more subscribers on BookSends than literary subscribers.

I ran a promo in literary fiction on a different book on BookSends in June. Literary fiction and Women's fiction were $10 on BookSends at that time; now the price is double.


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## AlpacaAl (Feb 8, 2013)

Well my ad ran - and I was pleased with the results. The second best return I have had after Bookbub. Although I very much doubt they will ever run me again  
Now, I notice the submission process has changed again, like is mentioned above. If you click on the POI submit page, it now directs you to Booksends, and a box that you can check to say you would like to be considered for POI, but no guarantees, even if Booksends run it. So, the partnership that would have taken people back to Booksends (as they were performing pretty badly recently, in my opinion) is no longer a partnership and just a way to get your book considered by POI. Don't know why they have to make it so difficult.


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## over and out (Sep 9, 2011)

2


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

M M said:


> Here is the link that shows on the POI site:
> http://www.pixelofink.com/advertise
> 
> If you read it carefully, it says there are 270,000 subscribers between Booksends and POI. Those are two separate lists, so it's possible that many of the subscribers are on both lists, and any overlap is counted twice. Think about the wording - if they combined the lists and gave one number, I bet it would be a significantly lower number of subscribers.
> ...


I think you may be right. Recently there have been a number of reports of promos not being as effective as they were in the past. I've seen it myself. As you said, one of the reasons could be that there is an overlap in subscribers to promo sites so the figures are misleading. Also, how much of any subscriber list is authors who have subscribed because they are doing promotions on the site?

We may not have reached a saturation point for email subscribers, but we're getting close. This makes our own email lists more important. The market may be forcing us to become more independent, which isn't a bad thing.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

I had a run with Booksends / POI for my permafree this month. It was very successful. It sounds like they are having some start-up hiccups, and if you're low on cash, maybe you want to wait a few months? But I would definitely give them a try. 

FWIW I consider 'very successful' more than 100 downloads per $10 spent. The Booksends/POI combo got me over triple that.


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## ChristinaGarner (Aug 31, 2011)

I must say that this has me a bit worried over my promo that begins 10/5. 

I booked through the POI site and was accepted, though the invoice I received was for BS. Since they are now partners I didn't think anything of it until I just read this thread tonight. POI ran an ad for me a couple of years ago with huge results. Last year I ran one with BS and had atrocious results. (They wrote a blurb that didn't really relate to my book at all! I ended up making less on the sale day than I had the days leading up to the ad.) 

I definitely never intended to book with BS again. (No disrespect intended to anyone who's had good results with them; I can only go on my own experience.) If they came along for the ride of my POI promo, that's one thing, but I've just sent an email saying that if my book won't be run on POI that I'd like a refund. 

I was treating the POI ad as the cornerstone of this promo, building my other ads around it. It will be pretty disastrous if this goes south, but under no circumstances am I going to be OK with paying $50 for a BookSends ad. I just can't imagine anyone would consider it reasonable to think that a person who is accepted for an ad via the POI website would be OK with their ad NOT running via POI. 

Thanks for the heads up on this. Fingers crossed--I'd be very sad to have to scramble 3 days before my promo was to begin. 

Editing to add that I've just looked at the new submission form which does have a place to choose whether or not to include POI. I submitted a month ago and the page was different, giving no indication that POI was optional.


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## Guest (Oct 2, 2015)

Wait, are Booksends the ones who rewrite your blurb instead of posting the one that you give them? I had bad results with them too, and the blurb rewrite was clunky and unappealing.


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## ChristinaGarner (Aug 31, 2011)

Joe Vasicek said:


> Wait, are Booksends the ones who rewrite your blurb instead of posting the one that you give them? I had bad results with them too, and the blurb rewrite was clunky and unappealing.


In fact, yes, and I'm a bit nervous about it.

I remembered that I didn't have a good result with Booksends but didn't remember why until I was searching through my email to find their address so that I could check to make sure I'm going to be featured on POI. That's when I saw the chain of emails that I wrote last year during my BS promo saying that I was disappointed with both the blurb and the results.

I write YA Urban Fantasy (specifically, teenagers saving the world from demons.) The blurb just said something about Ember escaping a mental institution--no mention of demons or what the book is actually about. Jason at BS said that I had several clicks but very few sales so that must mean that when they got to Amazon they didn't like what they saw. Since every other promotion I have ever run, large or small, has paid for itself with the exception of the one from BS, I personally believe that the people who clicked ended up seeing that the book was nothing like the blurb described, and therefore didn't buy. (And with that blurb, people who would actually like my books, wouldn't have realized it!)

In truth, it was POI that I was interested in but now I'm nervous that they will just copy the BS blurb, since they are partners and it seems that BS is the gatekeeper. Anyway, fingers crossed that the blurb is better this time and/or POI writes their own. It's not so much the $50 I might waste, but the Countdown Deal.


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

Joe Vasicek said:


> Wait, are Booksends the ones who rewrite your blurb instead of posting the one that you give them? I had bad results with them too, and the blurb rewrite was clunky and unappealing.


They rewrite your blurb?! Seriously?


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

KL_Phelps said:


> They rewrite your blurb?! Seriously?


Bookbub does that


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

Patty Jansen said:


> Bookbub does that


wow, didn't know that. Of course who knows if I'll ever get a bookbub, lol


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## ChristinaGarner (Aug 31, 2011)

KL_Phelps said:


> They rewrite your blurb?! Seriously?


It's not unusual that a promo company would rewrite (shorten) your blurb, but often you can send a one-liner and the promo company will use it. For instance, my one-liner is: "Troubled teen, Ember Lyon's life is never the same when she learns that she holds the key to saving the world form an ancient threat." I've also used, "What if the only girl who can save the world, isn't sure that she wants to?" But a variant of "Ember escapes from a mental institution" doesn't quite convey the same information or give an accurate feel for genre.

I believe that's what Joe was referencing--that they didn't use his preferred one-liner and wasn't pleased with what they came up with.

Editing to say that I am *super* hopeful I have better luck this time and will definitely report back!


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

I've got something lined up with Booksends/POI at the end of the month. I'll let you know how it goes with them.


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## jenminkman (Mar 2, 2013)

I have one with BS and EreaderIQ on Oct 31st. POI didn't want to run my book. Let's see what the $75 promo does, although it'll be hard to say because I also booked Book Barbarian for Oct 31st. My book has a Halloween theme, hence the stacked promos on one particular day.


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## ChristinaGarner (Aug 31, 2011)

Just an update on the blurb: BS actually ran my full blurb. I'll be updating people on the progress of the promo here: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,223517.0.html


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## Tricia O&#039; (Feb 19, 2013)

It looks like Pixel of Ink has stopped their advertising? I wonder what happened.


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## Christine_C (Jun 29, 2014)

I hope they start it up again. We had a POI ad yesterday and sold nearly 200 books.


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## 60169 (May 18, 2012)

Tricia O' said:


> It looks like Pixel of Ink has stopped their advertising? I wonder what happened.


Several things, I think. One, I think their partnership with BookSends didn't work out the way the wanted. I don't think the communication between them was as good as it needed to be, so they ended up having titles accepted that they otherwise wouldn't, then were stuck in the losing scenario of running a book they didn't want, or reneging on a promise a partner made on their behalf. Two, they got a lot of bad publicity out of this. See this thread, for instance. Now, they've pulled their head into their shell again.


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## Drew_Harmon (Jun 23, 2015)

Sorry to hear about the bum deal.  I'm getting my marketing up and going, and POI was on my list  not so much now.  I made a post asking if anyone had a report to share about the Independent Authors Network, but haven't had any replies yet.  Anyone have any experience with IAN?


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Shawn Inmon said:


> Several things, I think. One, I think their partnership with BookSends didn't work out the way the wanted. I don't think the communication between them was as good as it needed to be, so they ended up having titles accepted that they otherwise wouldn't, then were stuck in the losing scenario of running a book they didn't want, or reneging on a promise a partner made on their behalf. Two, they got a lot of bad publicity out of this. See this thread, for instance. Now, they've pulled their head into their shell again.


They also may have filled up with as many ads as they wanted--several have said they have ads throughout Oct. They may have tried the partnership and filled up a month or two and don't need anymore ads. Several sites only take ads so far out.


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## MajesticMonkey (Sep 3, 2013)

I hope POI will stick around. Any site with that kind of audience is one I would be willing to try.


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## SamuelStokes (Oct 11, 2015)

Has this been a consistent trend of late. Most of the blogs I had read indicated POI produced great results. Just curious to see if the times have changed.


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## Nicola Claire (May 22, 2014)

I purchased an ad on POI on October 8th, for today. But it hasn't shown on their newsletter. I submitted through a link from their website to Booksends. The book has appeared on Booksends today. According to Jason at Booksends, I didn't select POI when submitting. I have no recollection of having to do that, I do remember having to select Facebook as an add-on, but not POI. I used a POI link to Booksends for the submission. I paid $125 expecting a POI advertisement. I would not have paid that amount for Booksends alone. I'm really disappointed with the entire process. And now when I look at POI's website, they're no longer accepting submissions or admitting any link to Booksends at all. Hmmm. An expensive lesson learnt.


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

Nicola Claire said:


> I purchased an ad on POI on October 8th, for today. But it hasn't shown on their newsletter. I submitted through a link from their website to Booksends. The book has appeared on Booksends today. According to Jason at Booksends, I didn't select POI when submitting. I have no recollection of having to do that, I do remember having to select Facebook as an add-on, but not POI. I used a POI link to Booksends for the submission. I paid $125 expecting a POI advertisement. I would not have paid that amount for Booksends alone. I'm really disappointed with the entire process. And now when I look at POI's website, they're no longer accepting submissions or admitting any link to Booksends at all. Hmmm. An expensive lesson learnt.


your invoice would have have +POI on it


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## JalexM (May 14, 2015)

Nicola Claire said:


> I purchased an ad on POI on October 8th, for today. But it hasn't shown on their newsletter. I submitted through a link from their website to Booksends. The book has appeared on Booksends today. According to Jason at Booksends, I didn't select POI when submitting. I have no recollection of having to do that, I do remember having to select Facebook as an add-on, but not POI. I used a POI link to Booksends for the submission. I paid $125 expecting a POI advertisement. I would not have paid that amount for Booksends alone. I'm really disappointed with the entire process. And now when I look at POI's website, they're no longer accepting submissions or admitting any link to Booksends at all. Hmmm. An expensive lesson learnt.


Looks like their partnership is over and it left expensive casualties.


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

Nicola Claire said:


> I purchased an ad on POI on October 8th, for today. But it hasn't shown on their newsletter. I submitted through a link from their website to Booksends. The book has appeared on Booksends today. According to Jason at Booksends, I didn't select POI when submitting. I have no recollection of having to do that, I do remember having to select Facebook as an add-on, but not POI. I used a POI link to Booksends for the submission. I paid $125 expecting a POI advertisement. I would not have paid that amount for Booksends alone. I'm really disappointed with the entire process. And now when I look at POI's website, they're no longer accepting submissions or admitting any link to Booksends at all. Hmmm. An expensive lesson learnt.


Oh, that sucks. Sounds like you got snookered. That is way too much money for Booksends. Sorry you lost out on that promo money.

Welcome to Kboards!


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## Nicola Claire (May 22, 2014)

Yes, I've been told by Jason at Booksends that it was my error, and my error alone. And maybe it was. But I do think the link from POI should have meant their site was a condition of the submission through Booksends and not just an option you had to tick. $125 for Booksends is overpriced, IMO. I'll be more careful in the future.


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## JalexM (May 14, 2015)

Nicola Claire said:


> Yes, I've been told by Jason at Booksends that it was my error, and my error alone. And maybe it was. But I do think the link from POI should have meant their site was a condition of the submission through Booksends and not just an option you had to tick. $125 for Booksends is overpriced, IMO. I'll be more careful in the future.


With so many people claiming the same thing happened to them, I doubt it was your error. Just BS trying to cover themselves.


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## Nicola Claire (May 22, 2014)

JalexM said:


> With so many people claiming the same thing happened to them, I doubt it was your error. Just BS trying to cover themselves.


Yeah, me too. But I'm walking away from it. Dusting off my hands. And chalking this one up to a lesson learnt.


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

Nicola Claire said:


> Yes, I've been told by Jason at Booksends that it was my error, and my error alone. And maybe it was. But I do think the link from POI should have meant their site was a condition of the submission through Booksends and not just an option you had to tick. $125 for Booksends is overpriced, IMO. I'll be more careful in the future.


I had to add it on, mine runs Saturday (I hope) I do think that it should have been if you used the link from POI it should have automatically had the POI option clicked on


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## jrwilson (Apr 7, 2015)

I had a Pixel of Ink / Booksends at the end of September.  It was fantastic.  I'm really sad that it doesn't look like they are taking submissions anymore.  I signed up for their author newsletter so I could find out if they start back up again.


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

SkyScribe said:


> I completely agree and have no doubt that this is how it would've been after the first complaint had Pixel of Ink not decided to take their ball and go home. However, I do find it hilarious that the Pixel of Ink Huge Let Down thread is full of people completely thrilled with their promotions.


Well POI usually has great results for people, I know I had an awesome experience when they picked me up last fall. I think the real complaint isnt POI but how the paid advertising implementation got handled. I wish Sharon and David had continued with their youtube vids. It seemed that David had a huge collection of crazy pop culture t-shirts, just like me


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## Maia Sepp Ross (May 10, 2013)

jrwilson said:


> I had a Pixel of Ink / Booksends at the end of September. It was fantastic. I'm really sad that it doesn't look like they are taking submissions anymore. I signed up for their author newsletter so I could find out if they start back up again.


I had signed up for this newsletter ages ago though - and I never got an email about them accepting submissions. I only heard about it because of Kboards...


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