Pilgrim Press had a great Christmas!

We doubled our sales from last Christmas, making an amazing $200 USD. I’m thrilled. I actually thought we weren’t going to do well at all. I blamed it on the fact that I spent so much time in 2011 doing rewrites. I blamed it on the fact that I like dark themes. I was all prepared to buckle down for another year , because I’m determined to make a go of it.

And then the Smashwords sales came in.

The big money was made over at Barnes & Noble this year. It happened in Nov and Dec, but the reports didn’t filter in until this week. I am so pleased I didn’t invest too heavily in Amazon’s exclusive offer! The five free days you get at Amazon aren’t that helpful as a promotional tool. It does help to put books on sale for free and get a price match at Amazon.

I am attributing my big success this year to two things: 1) using Smashwords to publish at Barnes & Noble (I had been publishing at B&N myself, but it’s totally worth the small cut to Smashwords to have the ability to set the price to FREE at B&N) and 2) free promotions. I had all my books free in August and have had at least two free since. You have to give it away to earn it.

Last year the big money was at Amazon, but Amazon was flat if not a little underperforming this year for me. Free promotions are not what they once were at Amazon, but it’s still a big fish in the e-book world.

Another year, go! Wish us luck.