[Jay Allan]

I was wondering if anyone offering bundles or boxed sets has ever gotten a feel for what percentage of the sales canibalize sales of the individual books vs. bringing in new readers.

Let's say you have three books in a series, and they are doing fairly well.  One is 15 on sub-genre bestseller list, one is 30, and one is 80.  If you offer a bundle and lose sales from the three books, those ratings will drop.  You might end up with one at 35, one at 90, and one falling off the list, for example, and the bundle may or may not make the list.

It seems to me that a lot of our marketing is focused on driving books either on to or higher up on the various bestseller lists.  Whether it's a small sub-genre list or the top 100 overall, the premise remains the same...drive the book to where it will get more exposure.  Does offering more ways to buy a book (e.g a bundle) spread out the sales, driving everything down on the rankings despite possibly higher overall sales?  Or does the bundle bring in enough "new" buyers?

Just something I've been thinking about that I haven't seen discussed...

 

[Amanda Brice]

Gemma Halliday is my mentor in most things self-pub, and she suggests never bundling all the stories of a particular series in the same bundle. If your series is 3 books, then do a bundle of the first 2 but leave the final story out. (The exception is where you must read all the stories in order to achieve finality in the storyline, such as with a serialization or with a trilogy or something.)

 

[Rykymus]

I released the first 3 books (there are a total of 6 of 15 in the series published) as a bundle expecting it to cannibalize sales of 1, 2, & 3 individually. Funny thing is that it hasn't. I even got a few emails stating that they had been sitting on the fence about buying into the series, and the bundle get them off that fence. (Which of course means they bought the 4, 5, & 6 as well.) So far, all the omnibus has done is to add another 20 or so sales to my daily totals. So far, I consider it a win.

 

[Jay Allan]

Thanks!  THAT is exactly the kind of thing I was wondering.  Do you get new people or just spread your sales out amoung more individual products.  Your experience is very helpful.