Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Smashwords Authors Top Charts at Apple with Preorders

A couple weeks ago, we announced preorder distribution to Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo.  Today, we see a first-hand example of how preorders can help increase visibility and sales for authors.

Three Smashwords preorders went onsale today at Apple and other retailers.  They're topping the charts.  At Apple, accumulated preorders credit as sales on the day of release, which can cause titles to spike in the bestseller lists.  The higher ranking in the bestseller lists increases visibility which can then lead to greater sales.

As of this writing, JD Nixon's new mystery, Heller's Decision, is at #1 store-wide at the Apple iBooks store in Australia, #1 in Canada, #4 in the US, and #11 in the U.K.

Kristen Ashley's new romance, Rock Chick Revolution, landed today at #3 store-wide in Australia, #2 in Canada, #5  in the US, #20 in the UK

Elizabeth Reyes' new romance, Abel, landed today at #7 store-wide in Australia, and #46 in the UK.  In the US, she's charting at #35 in the always-competitive romance category.

Keep an eye on some of these other hot new releases coming out in the weeks ahead, each of which are likely to be chart-toppers as well:

Chanda Hahn's  Fable: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 3 (onsale 8/27)
J. S. Scott's  The Billionaire’s Salvation (The Billionaire’s Obsession ~ Max)  (onsale 9/8)
Quinn Loftis'  Sacrifice of Love: Book 7 of the Grey Wolves Series (onsale 9/13)

Learn more about preorders here at the Smashwords Blog.

3 comments:

Catherine Stine said...

Good to know!

JD Nixon said...

Mark, many thanks to you and Henry, and the lovely Apple people, for making it go so smoothly. Looking forward to doing it all again in a couple of months!!

K.C. Taylor said...

Mark, in the case of Kristen Ashley, that was a much-anticipated book that's an end to a series, so of course it did well. It would do well pre-order or not.

I'd like to see first/debut books get the same boost from pre-orders. That would be more fair to report on. No disrespect to the hard work of JD Nixon and Ms. Ashley.