# Pixel of Ink now taking submissions



## HeyImBen (Mar 7, 2013)

I didn't see this posted anywhere, but as of yesterday, Pixel of Ink is accepting submissions after partnering with Booksends. 
If I hadn't already spent a mortgage payment for my upcoming promotion, I would certainly consider using them again, though
they are not cheap.

http://www.pixelofink.com/advertise


----------



## loriann (Jun 20, 2014)

Thanks for the scoop!!


----------



## Amanda M. Lee (Jun 3, 2014)

That's good to know.


----------



## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Cool. Thanks for letting us know. Submitted.


----------



## Janeal Falor (Oct 25, 2014)

Definitely good to know. I was wondering when they were going to be coming back.


----------



## Rayven T. Hill (Jul 24, 2013)

$225.00 for a free thriller? Bookbub is only $365.00 for 10 or 20 times more subscribers. Not worth the price, in my opinion, for a couple thousand downloads.


----------



## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

Thank you - submitted!


----------



## katherinef (Dec 13, 2012)

Why is it combined with Booksends? I already used Booksends, so I'd like it more if we could just book POI.


----------



## Mystery Maven (Sep 17, 2014)

Yes, why on earth combine with Booksends? POI always had good results for me, while Booksends was awful.


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Rayven T. Hill said:


> $225.00 for a free thriller? Bookbub is only $365.00 for 10 or 20 times more subscribers. Not worth the price, in my opinion, for a couple thousand downloads.


The prices seem inflated, and they're not offering very much info. They're claiming 270,000 readers overall, but we don't know how many of those readers are interested in each genre.

I notice that advertising a free book is the most expensive choice. In fantasy, you can advertise a $.99 book for $55, but a free book costs $125. It's as though they're pricing per download, not keeping in mind that the cost of paid book ads are offset by royalties. Bookbub takes the opposite approach: the lower your book's price, the cheaper the ad.

Dunno. POI used to be the bomb, back in the day, but I'm not so sure about this.


----------



## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

I'm happy to drop $55 on a promotion for science fiction. When you fill in the form, you can opt in to have your book included in the Booksends newsletter for an extra $10. Like you, I have never found Booksends worth what they normally charge, but for an extra $10, why not. That said, my promo dates are fixed so they'll probably reject it.


----------



## katherinef (Dec 13, 2012)

Patty Jansen said:


> When you fill in the form, you can opt in to have your book included in the Booksends newsletter for an extra $10.


Isn't that for a post on their Facebook page and not for the newsletter?


----------



## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

Thanks for sharing! Pixel of Ink featured Gone and I was able to go full time not long after. (There were obviously a number of other factors, but that feature did help a lot.)


----------



## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

katherinef said:


> Isn't that for a post on their Facebook page and not for the newsletter?


I didn't choose the Facebook option but I did tick the newsletter option. Advertising on Facebok is cool, but Facebook posts are useless.


----------



## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

sweet


----------



## katherinef (Dec 13, 2012)

Patty Jansen said:


> I didn't choose the Facebook option but I did tick the newsletter option. Advertising on Facebok is cool, but Facebook posts are useless.


I'm only seeing Facebook and Ereaderiq option. Am I missing something? Because I can't see where I can tick/untick the Booksends newsletter option.


----------



## ChristinaGarner (Aug 31, 2011)

Thanks for the heads up!


----------



## jrwilson (Apr 7, 2015)

Thank you!  It seems like forever since they've taken submissions from indies.


----------



## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

Fabulous. I had fantastic results with them when they used to allow submissions. I'm hoping they take mine.


----------



## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

Thanks for sharing! It has been a long hiatus.


----------



## ChristinaGarner (Aug 31, 2011)

I got picked up by POI back in the days when free ads didn't cost anything. 20k downloads! Sadly, I only had one book out and didn't even have a mailing list...DOH! Still annoyed with myself for blowing that opportunity. Got some reviews out of it, but with 20k downloads I should have done a much better job.


----------



## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

I added this to the freebie advertising list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RuBvSzJuy5jFg4-58EkkQ0G1OIuXzjN54CW-_CavdCA/edit#gid=0

... right below BookBub in the paid section at the bottom.


----------



## ChristinaGarner (Aug 31, 2011)

C. Gockel said:


> I added this to the freebie advertising list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RuBvSzJuy5jFg4-58EkkQ0G1OIuXzjN54CW-_CavdCA/edit#gid=0
> 
> ... right below BookBub in the paid section at the bottom.


What a great resource! FYI on Orangeberry--they haven't been accepting submissions since last year. No updates since 8/14.


----------



## Kate. (Oct 7, 2014)

C. Gockel said:


> I added this to the freebie advertising list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RuBvSzJuy5jFg4-58EkkQ0G1OIuXzjN54CW-_CavdCA/edit#gid=0
> 
> ... right below BookBub in the paid section at the bottom.


Sorry to derail the thread--but WOW, your new covers are _gorgeous_!


----------



## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Christina--I will try to remember to update. Darcy thx. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## NanSweet (Apr 14, 2015)

Thanks for letting us know!!!  Submitted!  I don't mind saying I was a little bit concerned over the price, but ultimately decided to give it a try.


----------



## over and out (Sep 9, 2011)

katherinef said:


> Why is it combined with Booksends? I already used Booksends, so I'd like it more if we could just book POI.


I think it's because Booksends bought the POI subscriber list. It'll be interesting to see results from those that have booked an ad.


----------



## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

I appears to me POI doesn't want to deal with customers, so they've outsourced.


----------



## ChristinaGarner (Aug 31, 2011)

My request for Gateway was approved. I'd requested September but got 10/5 which is fine. I'll be happy to share my results, thought by the time my ad runs they may be booked up--their slots usually go quick!


----------



## KaiW (Mar 11, 2014)

I did it with a free book recently via booksends and got 3.5k downloads on a women's fiction title, think it cost over $200 so pretty steep compared to bookbub!


----------



## NanSweet (Apr 14, 2015)

I didn't know POI had completely sold to Booksends.  I hope it works out.  I've heard so many good things about Pixel of Ink, but I didn't know they sold their list...I requested a spot, so we'll see what happens.


----------



## ChristinaGarner (Aug 31, 2011)

Well, I love BookBub, but I've only been accepted to one paid promotion and it was almost 2 years ago 

Haven't tried their free promotion though I'm thinking of contacting them about doing a discounted one for my omnibus as I see they are doing those quite a bit lately--might have a better shot.


----------



## Bob Stewart (Mar 19, 2014)

Seems it's priced about 10x BookBub per subscriber. It will be interesting to see how people do (and what genres.)


----------



## jenminkman (Mar 2, 2013)

Submitted one of my Teen/YA freebies. Let's see what they say


----------



## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

I'm worried the quality of the list will go down if they allow the same book every 90 days. I think Bookbub's 6 month wait is actually good for authors


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## over and out (Sep 9, 2011)

NanSweet said:


> I didn't know POI had completely sold to Booksends. I hope it works out. I've heard so many good things about Pixel of Ink, but I didn't know they sold their list...I requested a spot, so we'll see what happens.


Not saying they did for sure, just my guess. Those lists are worth money, so it seems logical. Sorry for any confusion.


----------



## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

Becca Mills said:


> I notice that advertising a free book is the most expensive choice. In fantasy, you can advertise a $.99 book for $55, but a free book costs $125. It's as though they're pricing per download, not keeping in mind that the cost of paid book ads are offset by royalties. Bookbub takes the opposite approach: the lower your book's price, the cheaper the ad.


We all have to decide how much the exposure is worth to us, but I do understand their logic with free books being the most expensive to advertise. Assuming that some of their income comes from affiliate links, paid books will bring them additional funds on top of the author's fee, while free books won't. In addition, if a lot of their income is from Amazon affiliate links, they could be hurt by linking to too many freebies, as there is a limit to how many free products you can link to before it starts to ding your affiliate income from paid products.


----------



## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

Last week I signed up for a promotion with Pixel of Ink and BookSends for a .99 cent promo in Women's Fiction. I didn't see The Pixel of Ink price list when I signed up for the promo. Instead, I saw the BookSends price list with the option of adding Pixel of Ink. I took the option, gulping at the price. Had I known that the option for literary fiction was $50, I would have signed up for that instead (the book falls into both categories). I don't know what the price is based on or have any idea of how well it will do. BookSends has only 2,000 more subscribers in Women's Fiction than in Literary Fiction. I emailed Jason to ask if my book could be switched to the less expensive category. If you're interested, I'll keep you posted.


----------



## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

C. Gockel said:


> I'm worried the quality of the list will go down if they allow the same book every 90 days. I think Bookbub's 6 month wait is actually good for authors


I agree!


----------



## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

SkyScribe said:


> Another part of it is that advertising a free book with them is a very different beast because authors can submit affiliate codes to run with the ads. I've loved getting paid when people download my free books and a few times it's gone a long way to paying off the ad by itself. Nice that it doesn't depend entirely on sales of the rest of the series. I see that Pixel of Ink accepts the codes as well as part of this arrangement. I'm salivating at the thought of what my tag could do on Pixel.


Oh, no kidding? I didn't realize they let the author include an affiliate link. That's a whole different ball game then. So they're not making money from the downloads/sales themselves; they're letting the author have it. Well, assuming the author doesn't experience the "too many free downloads" ding to affiliate income that I mentioned.


----------



## kimberlyloth (May 15, 2014)

I, too, just got accepted. The cost is high, but I'm hoping its worth it. My ad runs 9/26. I'll let y'all know how it goes.


----------



## Dom (Mar 15, 2014)

SkyScribe said:


> Another part of it is that advertising a free book with them is a very different beast because authors can submit affiliate codes to run with the ads. I've loved getting paid when people download my free books and a few times it's gone a long way to paying off the ad by itself. Nice that it doesn't depend entirely on sales of the rest of the series. I see that Pixel of Ink accepts the codes as well as part of this arrangement. I'm salivating at the thought of what my tag could do on Pixel.


The tag might only be for the BookSends facebook post. It's hard to tell.


----------



## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

I cancelled my promo. I didn't think $100 was worth the risk when I'd only be getting .35 cents a book. BookBub delivers, as does ENT which is far less expensive, but I have no idea of what a Pixel of Ink promo would do. I would have taken the risk for literary fiction at $50, but not Women's fiction at $100. 

I hope y'all who are braver than I am will share your results. This could be a learning experience for all of us.


----------



## Marseille France or Bust (Sep 25, 2012)

Totally agree.



Becca Mills said:


> The prices seem inflated, and they're not offering very much info. They're claiming 270,000 readers overall, but we don't know how many of those readers are interested in each genre.
> 
> I notice that advertising a free book is the most expensive choice. In fantasy, you can advertise a $.99 book for $55, but a free book costs $125. It's as though they're pricing per download, not keeping in mind that the cost of paid book ads are offset by royalties. Bookbub takes the opposite approach: the lower your book's price, the cheaper the ad.
> 
> Dunno. POI used to be the bomb, back in the day, but I'm not so sure about this.


----------



## Not Here Anymore (May 16, 2012)

Did anyone else notice this on POI payment form:  

"* Note: box sets are charged 2× the listed rate."

Wow. Haven't seen that before...or am I just out of the loop?


----------



## Gator (Sep 28, 2012)

Sara Rosett said:


> Did anyone else notice this on POI payment form:
> 
> "* Note: box sets are charged 2× the listed rate."


Yes, I did. I think POI subscribers aren't going to see too many box sets offered to them at 99c.


----------



## Not Here Anymore (May 16, 2012)

Gator said:


> Yes, I did. I think POI subscribers aren't going to see too many box sets offered to them at 99c.


True! They're not on my list for a box set ad unless they return Bookbub-like results. Thanks in advance to everyone who keeps us updated on POI results.


----------



## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

Sara Rosett said:


> True! They're not on my list for a box set ad unless they return Bookbub-like results. Thanks in advance to everyone who keeps us updated on POI results.


I booked them for my boxed set. Yep, it's pricey. It's an experiment, and it's the day before my BookBub, so I'd like to do my utmost to boost the numbers in advance of the BookBub ad. But a gamble.


----------



## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

I didn't get accepted, but it might be a blessing what with the high price for the number of eyes on it...anxious to see other people's results. Free book of the day was $265 I think.


----------



## JETaylor (Jan 25, 2011)

Thanks for the info


----------



## jrwilson (Apr 7, 2015)

I got accepted for 9/28/2015.  I don't know if I should be happy or not.  I'll put up a post with results.


----------



## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

The box set cost is a really good deal for multi-author sets (split the cost) - something BookBub won't accept.


----------



## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> "* Note: box sets are charged 2x the listed rate."


Booksends does that too, as does MyRomanceReads.


----------



## N. Gemini Sasson (Jul 5, 2010)

Glad to learn of this. It's good to have another option. A few years ago I had a POI ad and it was my first really big run.  

I hope they can be a reliable factor again. I'm sure many who are able to get picked up with them now will share results here.


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Maria Romana said:


> Oh, no kidding? I didn't realize they let the author include an affiliate link. That's a whole different ball game then. So they're not making money from the downloads/sales themselves; they're letting the author have it. Well, assuming the author doesn't experience the "too many free downloads" ding to affiliate income that I mentioned.


If they put their own affiliate tag on free books, they would lose all their affiliate income. Any site whose tag is credited for 20,000+ free book downloads, or whose tag's book-downloads are 80%+ free in a given month, loses all affiliate income for that month (source). Just one free book advertised by POI could get 20,000 downloads, and that would be that.

I suppose they intend an author's affiliate income to offset the cost of the ad. Not everyone can be an Amazon Associate, but most people are able to participate.


----------



## DaveinJapan (Jun 20, 2013)

Always good to know what options are out there, though I haven't had the best of luck with PofI so far. Thanks!


----------



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

I purchased for a Free book of the day ad. Will update with results.


----------



## waltercan (Aug 19, 2015)

This may be a dumb question, but why haven't they been taking submissions?  Why would you turn down people's money?


----------



## Rayven T. Hill (Jul 24, 2013)

Becca Mills said:


> If they put their own affiliate tag on free books, they would lose all their affiliate income. Any site whose tag is credited for 20,000+ free book downloads, or whose tag's book-downloads are 80%+ free in a given month, loses all affiliate income for that month (source). Just one free book advertised by POI could get 20,000 downloads, and that would be that.
> 
> I suppose they intend an author's affiliate income to offset the cost of the ad. Not everyone can be an Amazon Associate, but most people are able to participate.


It's not "or" it's "and"

You have to have at least 20,000 free downloads before the 80% rule takes effect.


----------



## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> This may be a dumb question, but why haven't they been taking submissions? Why would you turn down people's money?


Because it's hard sorting through submissions and choosing. Especially when you have the reach of POI and probably get hundreds of submissions a day. I think the owner of the site like promoting books they find interesting, not wading through books they don't find interesting.


----------



## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Rayven T. Hill said:


> It's not "or" it's "and"
> 
> You have to have at least 20,000 free downloads before the 80% rule takes effect.


Right, thank you!


----------



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

An update - 

I purchased the Free Book of The Day ad for $325 and had 7,500 downloads that day across all vendors. That was the only promotion that I had that day, however, I had been promoting a week prior to this ad. 

So, all said and done - I will probably stick with the romance specific list in the future.


----------



## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

C. Gockel said:


> Because it's hard sorting through submissions and choosing. Especially when you have the reach of POI and probably get hundreds of submissions a day. I think the owner of the site like promoting books they find interesting, not wading through books they don't find interesting.


 I asked once. It has less to do with sorting and just more than enough material to go out x months. Bookbasset and ereaderiq are the same. They only take ads so far out. Ereaderiq does it that way because they were taking ads out for as long as 2 years--but as the industry changed (freebies) that made it suddenly difficult to deal with the changes. By not going out too far, they have pricing flexibility and can keep up with trends. So if Urban Fantasy suddenly becomes hot, they can start offering more of it. And so on.


----------



## Holly A Hook (Sep 19, 2010)

I just got a YA freebie accepted for October 10th.  I'll have this ad at the same time as a Freebooksy one.  

I used to always get rejections from POI a few years ago for the same book.  I think them partnering up with BookSends helped me get accepted this time.  I'll have to see how it goes.


----------



## Guest (Sep 17, 2015)

I have an ENT promotion running on Sept. 21st, so feeling braver than I should, I asked for a 99 cents promotion for my contemporary romance on the same day. I'm sure I'll be turned down, but, hey. You have to ask. I've always had good results with ENT. This would be my first time to promote with P of I.


----------



## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

Does POI only bill you once they've accepted you submission?


----------



## kspringer (Dec 16, 2012)

So far I'm disappointed. I tried my YA box set free, with a POI for $125. I never pay this much for ads except for BookBub (but they've been rejecting me for two years). The POI went up this morning and so far only 25 downloads today. UGH. I'm hoping it picks up throughout the day. I did much better with Choosy Bookworm for $18.


----------



## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

kspringer said:


> So far I'm disappointed. I tried my YA box set free, with a POI for $125. I never pay this much for ads except for BookBub (but they've been rejecting me for two years). The POI went up this morning and so far only 25 downloads today. UGH. I'm hoping it picks up throughout the day. I did much better with Choosy Bookworm for $18.


Their email doesn't go out for a few hours yet, so it will pick later.


----------



## Elliott Garber (Apr 8, 2013)

Monique said:


> Their email doesn't go out for a few hours yet, so it will pick later.


Okay, phew! I have my $0.99 promotion with them today also, and I'm really hoping for a good ROI.


----------



## Greg Dragon (Jun 10, 2014)

I don't typically report my promos since I don't make the crazy numbers people seem to do here but I wanted to put in a good word for PoI. I had a $0.99 deal for a Space Opera on there and it tripled my KENP(sp) and sold over 90 copies along with a significant tail on the second day. This was a book that was only selling 2-4 copies a day. I haven't had any other companies give me that result and it cost $75.


----------



## Greg Dragon (Jun 10, 2014)

kspringer said:


> So far I'm disappointed. I tried my YA box set free, with a POI for $125. I never pay this much for ads except for BookBub (but they've been rejecting me for two years). The POI went up this morning and so far only 25 downloads today. UGH. I'm hoping it picks up throughout the day. I did much better with Choosy Bookworm for $18.


Reports have been extremely laggy, so you may see a jump this evening. I know with mine it would update almost every hour and kept going past midnight ... different time zones and all that. Book Sends also posted the book later than PoI did.


----------



## kspringer (Dec 16, 2012)

Monique said:


> Their email doesn't go out for a few hours yet, so it will pick later.


Really?? That makes me feel so much better. I know this says I posted at 9:15 but it was actually 11:15 here (my setting weird?) so it felt like half the day went by already. I'll keep watching, I'm really hoping it picks up! It's 12:38 here now and I've had 146 downloads today. It's picked up some in the last hour. When I've done Bookbub it's like 16,000 a day though so yeah, for the price so far POI isn't doing it. But hopeful with the newsletter!


----------



## kspringer (Dec 16, 2012)

SkyScribe said:


> Lag between when downloads and purchases are made and when they show up in reports has been as much as 8 hours lately. Try taking a few deep breaths and read a book or something.


Thanks!


----------



## kspringer (Dec 16, 2012)

SkyScribe said:


> Expecting anything to perform like BookBub is a good way to make sure you're disappointed, but that doesn't mean it won't be worth it. If you're able to land in the Top 100 and nab a couple thousand downloads over a few days, I think most authors who've been at this long enough would consider that a good deal.


I didn't think it'd be just like BB but I was hopeful for more than 500 downloads in a day. Price-wise a Bookbub free book ad in teen is $90 and the POI in teen is $125. So it's really not a good deal for so few downloads. Too bad BBs are so hard to get.


----------



## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

how long does it take for POI to respond on whether they've accepted your ad?


----------



## Mike_Author (Oct 19, 2013)

The non-fiction prices seem reasonable (albeit with far less subscribers than major fiction categories).  Has anyone had any experience advertising non-fiction?

Also, as someone who has never advertised, I am a bit of a newb in this area so wondering how the "must be 50%" off normal price thing works?  For example, say I have a book that usually sells for 2.99, what is to stop me from increasing it to $6 before I submit?

Thanks for any feedback/experience


----------



## Kate. (Oct 7, 2014)

Mike_Author said:


> For example, say I have a book that usually sells for 2.99, what is to stop me from increasing it to $6 before I submit?


I can't answer the other questions, but some of the larger promo sites check price trackers to see what the book's cost has been over the last 1-3 months. This especially applies to sites with a "can't be offered at a lower price within X days" requirement. Of course, POI might not do this - it's a fair bit of work to check every book submitted. But it's something to keep in mind.


----------



## Guest (Nov 3, 2015)

FYI Booksends is no longer taking submission for POI on their site. Bummer!


----------



## dianapersaud (Sep 26, 2013)

I went to POI's website and under the Author link- it said they weren't taking any submissions. The page was updated Sept 2015.

Are you all submitting on Booksends?


----------



## 60169 (May 18, 2012)

dianapersaud said:


> I went to POI's website and under the Author link- it said they weren't taking any submissions. The page was updated Sept 2015.
> 
> Are you all submitting on Booksends?


The partnership between Booksends and POI did not go well. POI is once again not accepting submissions, which is a major bummer.


----------

