Release Strategies by Craig Martelle

Author:Craig Martelle [Martelle, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781070854694
Published: 2019-05-30T04:00:00+00:00

Box Sets

Box sets (or omnibus collections) are the best thing ever. A box set is a collection of hardbacks or paperbacks contained within a single box. Omnibus is a collection contained under a single cover. I use both words interchangeably, but I should stick to “omnibus” since that’s what I am publishing.

Why do you consolidate your books into single volumes?

Repackaging adds a revenue stream as well as services a different demographic. In Kindle Unlimited, people get two or more books, filling a single one of their ten slots. KU readers can only check out ten books at a time. Box sets allow the true whale readers, those who read at least a book a day, to maximize their reading with minimal effort interacting on Amazon.

And then a second repackaging. Take my Free Trader series. I published the first box set, which contained books one, two, and three, exactly thirty days after book three was published. I think I did myself a disservice, but I don’t believe the box set cannibalized my single-book sales. Nowadays, I wait at least three months and until I’ve had a couple more releases in that series before doing a box set.

My Free Trader is nine books long. I did a 1-3 box, a 4-6 box, and a 7-9 box. And then after a year with those three, I consolidated all nine into a single volume, books 1-9 under one cover. Those are all separate and distinct revenue streams. Those are all opportunities to find new readers. A nine-book box set can draw a great number of eyes. I’ll run a promotion on it for 99 cents. I’ve already made plenty of money from the books, so this is all new money.

And I have a three-book follow-on series they can pick up if they read all nine. It’s a win-win.

So, box sets—I highly recommend them as an additional revenue stream once your books have run their natural course, and then throw all the volumes together for yet another run. People who bought the separate volumes may check out the complete set in order to have a quick re-read (that is the plan, since nine books make for a massive KENPC, the page count by which KU pays you).

In the Darklanding series, since the stories were shorter, our only paperbacks are in the omnis—books 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12. We also had audio done only for the omnis. Audiobooks at less than three hours are a tough market, so we do a nine-hour audio with three books.

And then we put those omnis into their own series—the Darklanding Omnibus series, books 1 to 4, with its own series page and everything.

Two separate opportunities to bring in readers. Right now, there is no way for a reader to know if any individual books are in box sets unless they specifically search or your ads reach them. Otherwise, Amazon does not link the two different series in any way.

As for pricing, I price the box sets a bit cheaper—three for the price of two, generally.

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