[DaphneMclean19]

I've seen discussions before regarding boxed sets and when a good time to publish one would be. The general consensus seems to be when book sales have slowed.
Sales on my books (3 cozy mysteries, 4 will come out in May) are not the best. My thought is that maybe I'll reach a new audience with a boxed set.
I'm just starting Mark Dawson's Ads course and I haven't done much advertising.
Should I hold off on that and try ads first? I'm trying to make smarter business choices here and would love your input!

 

[jaxonreed]

Box sets work because people love a bargain and KU readers like filling up only one of their slots with multiple titles.

Your mileage may vary and it probably depends on your genre, but from what i've seen complete sets with at least four books in the series do better than trilogies. Of course, 8, 10, 12+ book box sets do even better. Note that there is a 3,000 page limit on KU, so it's pointless to include too many titles.

In your situation, in my opinion, it won't hurt to have a trilogy box set out there. It will give you a fourth title right away. You can run KU free days on book 1 and 99 cent promos on the box set to build up a list of buyers who will hopefully go for your Book 4 when it comes out. 

 

[DaphneMclean19]

Thank you!

 

[Alex Anders]

My best advice, the best time to release a box set is as soon as you have two books. I'm not joking. But, shh, don't tell anyone. 

 

[Doglover]

I've seen discussions before regarding boxed sets and when a good time to publish one would be. The general consensus seems to be when book sales have slowed.
Sales on my books (3 cozy mysteries, 4 will come out in May) are not the best. My thought is that maybe I'll reach a new audience with a boxed set.
I'm just starting Mark Dawson's Ads course and I haven't done much advertising.
Should I hold off on that and try ads first? I'm trying to make smarter business choices here and would love your input!

If you have Mark's course and are thinking of Facebook ads, in my own experience (not everyone's) boxed sets do better than a single book. People love to think they are getting something cheap and if you box up that first three, you'll find if they like them, they will go on to read the rest. However, if you advertise your e-book set, don't be surprised if you get lots asking for paperbacks. I've found that a lot in comments on my ads, and really if I wanted that, I'd search the title in Amazon to see if they are there. But there you are. You might spend a lot of time telling them how to find the paperbacks.

But do watch Mark's advice on Facebook ads first. If you don't target them properly, you'll find your money disappearing like Dr Who's police box!

 

[DaphneMclean19]

If you have Mark's course and are thinking of Facebook ads, in my own experience (not everyone's) boxed sets do better than a single book. People love to think they are getting something cheap and if you box up that first three, you'll find if they like them, they will go on to read the rest. However, if you advertise your e-book set, don't be surprised if you get lots asking for paperbacks. I've found that a lot in comments on my ads, and really if I wanted that, I'd search the title in Amazon to see if they are there. But there you are. You might spend a lot of time telling them how to find the paperbacks.

But do watch Mark's advice on Facebook ads first. If you don't target them properly, you'll find your money disappearing like Dr Who's police box!

So I should do boxed sets in both paperback and ebook?

 

[unkownwriter]

You can't do "box sets" in paperback, it's not something Amazon does. I really wish the whole box set terminology hadn't gotten started, it doesn't mean what people think it does. Same with "blurb" being used for what was traditionally called back cover copy.

 

[Doglover]

You can't do "box sets" in paperback, it's not something Amazon does. I really wish the whole box set terminology hadn't gotten started, it doesn't mean what people think it does. Same with "blurb" being used for what was traditionally called back cover copy.

I agree, but it looks so good! Anyway, as said you can't do boxed sets in paperback. You can do one big paperback, providing there aren't too many pages, or you can point them to the individual books. That's what I do. I did do a paperback for the whole trilogy, but it came out too expensive for most people. they don't seem to realise that they are paying for for the individual books.

 

[DaphneMclean19]

So I feel like the word bundle is better than boxed set then...

 

[Doglover]

So I feel like the word bundle is better than boxed set then...

I prefer omnibus myself.

 

[aimeeeasterling]

I wait and bundle when my income is low and I need a near-guaranteed Bookbub boost. Bookbub may reject one of my bundled trilogies once or twice but will nearly always take it as a 99 cent deal.

 

[ShayneRutherford]

I prefer omnibus myself.

Me too. Omnibus is the correct term for several separate novel-length works being combined into one book.