[thesmallprint]

The last WC discussion I can find on this is from early 2011 - Brian K started the thread.  A lot has changed since then and I'm interested in your thoughts on making a box-set available - in my case of books 1 to 3 - at a discount of $1.50 on the overall cost?

Thanks
Joe

 

[Amanda Brice]

My boxed set sold nearly 1000 copies during the last week of December. So yes, I definitely think boxed sets are worth doing.

That being said, my boxed set sells the most when it's on a big sale.

The list price for each of my books is $3.99. My boxed set currently has a list price of $4.99, so that's a savings of $3 compared to buying individually. And it seems to really move the most copies when it's on sale for 99 cents. Grumble, grumble.

 

[PhoenixS]

Much depends on the genre and your expectations. Price too low and the set cannibalizes sales of the individual titles. Too high and folk may be reluctant to buy.

Our box sets are all on sale now. One is in the Top 100, with 10,000+ sales last month and about 6000 sales so far this month. It's a 99c loss leader and is working to sell the other box sets, which is what we're currently pushing. It's also romance, so our results likely will not be yours.

If you're doing the work yourself to format and cover the set, then no reason not to give it a try. You can always unpublish if you're not seeing the type of sales you hope to see or if you see sales on the individual titles falling too low. And as with all titles, you do need to make it visible so people know it's there to buy .

 

[dalya]

There's more incentive to do them if you have items at the sub-$2.99 commission rate. If you box 99-cent items, you can sell it to the reader for less and still make more.

However, if your items are over $2.99, it's not as appealing.

 

[Matthew Stewart]

When people say box sets, do they mean literal box sets? In the box? Where do you get your boxes printed at? I think it'd be cool to have, even if only for the novelty of having one myself.

 

[Amanda Brice]

No, we mean a "digital boxed set", or a bundle. Basically putting together a file of at least two, if not more, of your ebooks, and then selling that new file at a discount compared to buying individually.

See mine in my sig line.

 

[jvin248]

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Another YES vote for boxed sets.
Pricing is an art.
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It works really well if you can do your own covers (either 2D or 3D mashups) and formatting (so costs are low). I combined the text and made covers in two days along with releasing two short stories I had finished up. I went from three products into ten products with mixing and matching in my Vampires series (biggest product with everything is in my sig, that one doesn't go on free download, I'm ok with a reader 'Selecting' it for their whole month though).
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I've been seeing a lot of other boxed sets out this last holiday season, successful for authors and readers.
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.

 

[Amanda Brice]

Gemma Halliday hit the NY Times and USA today bestseller lists TWICE with a boxed set of her existing ebooks. Some fo the books in the collection had been out for more than 5 years by that point, but by combining them (she has multiple boxed sets -- one of 5 books, two of 3 books, etc) she was able to create new products and reach new readers in ways she hadn't before.

 

[Matthew Stewart]

No, we mean a "digital boxed set", or a bundle. Basically putting together a file of at least two, if not more, of your ebooks, and then selling that new file at a discount compared to buying individually.

See mine in my sig line.

Yes. Thanks for answering.

Well that kind of disappoints me. I want a physical box set. I suppose I could make one for myself, but you know. Not the same.

 

[AndreSanThomas]

Yes!  I have 3 bundles of my books.  They sell.  About 10% of my total sales and I've never advertised them at all in any way.  And given that they take so little effort, totally worth it.  Plus, that's yet another item under your name for readers to stumble across.

Just be sure to title and describe well so that customers don't think it is a new book.

 

[28612]

Another yes on boxed sets.

I do them for my trilogies.  For most of the trilogies, Book 1 is 99 cents (right now, 2 Bks 1 are free), Book 2 $3.99 and Book 4 $4.29. 

The Boxed Set is $6.99, so even if they've bought Book 1 already or if they got it free, they still save some by boxed-setting Books 2 & 3.  So it's good for the reader in both savings and convenience, and it's good for me in securing readers who otherwise might have been lost to attrition from one book to the next.

 

[Kathleen Valentine]

I have 2 boxed sets of 3 volumes each. The price for the boxed set saves the reader the price of one volume within the set. They sell pretty well. The way I see it, those are sales I might otherwise not have had.

 

[thesmallprint]

Many thanks for the replies. I will take your advice and get the first set out next month.

Joe

 

[Jay Allan]

I like the idea in theory, but in practice I wonder how it might affect sales rankings.  We're always fighting to maintain a position on the genre bestseller lists.  If you sell 20 copies of a boxed set, but 10 less of each book could you shoot yourself in the foot by having everything at a lower rank? 

 

[thesmallprint]

Well, here it is. Best keep it out of Select I suppose

 

[Amanda Brice]

If even one of the books is available elsewhere, then you can't put the set into Select because it would be a violation of the terms.

 

[thesmallprint]

If even one of the books is available elsewhere, then you can't put the set into Select because it would be a violation of the terms.

Thanks Amanda. They're all in Select individually but it would be a big sales risk to put the set in, wouldn't it, from a Borrows viewpoint? Though I might be missing something?

Joe

 

[Amanda Brice]

They're all in Select individually but it would be a big sales risk to put the set in, wouldn't it, from a Borrows viewpoint? Though I might be missing something?

Ah, yes. From a borrows POV, it would be a risk, because why would people use 3 borrows when they could use 1 borrow and get them all?

 

[RGPorter]

This is something I've been tossing around and plan to do with my first completed series. As the rest get done (for my other series) i plan to do the same for them as well.

 

[RM Prioleau]

Are you guys using a 'boxed set image generator' to make your boxed set image in your sigs? Or is is it just photoshop? Or is that an actual photograph of your boxed set?