Happy Monday, WG2E-Land Peeps!
Back in August 2011, I first mentioned that I’d decided to create my first D. D. Scott Boxed Set.
I posted then:
I first noticed the Ebook Boxed Set Idea being used by one of my fave authors – once TradiPubbed, now Indie Epubbed too - Gemma Halliday, who has Ebook Boxed Sets of both her High Heels Mysteries as well as her Hollywood Headlines Mysteries. The lovely Indie Author Miriam Minger is also doing Ebook Boxed Sets.
Jump forward to December 2011…and here’s what I did with that idea…
The Bootscootin’ and Cozy Cash Mysteries Boxed Set
On Amazon
On Nook
On Smashwords
Fast forward to January 2012, and here’s the scoop:
I’ve sold over 6,000 Boxed Sets in the first 4 weeks of its release (on just Amazon and B&N)!!!
I made over $12,000 in December 2011…on just my Boxed Set!!!
Including my backlist sales, I’m going to have made over $14,000 in December 2011…just one month!!!
I’ve gone from making $3,000 on average per month as an Indie Epub Author to now $14,000 per month!!!
Total BOXED SET BLISS, right?!
So how did I manage to create such a Seth Godin-style Purple Cow Product and achieve such huge sales’ numbers?
1. I undercut every other Boxed Set out there!!! 6 Books for $2.99…at the time, no one else was doing that.
***Note: This last week, my superfab friend Gemma Halliday, who I mentioned earlier, has now undercut me! LOL! She and I area always neck-and-neck in the same Bestseller Lists on both Amazon and B&N, but she was at around 3-5 books for between $6.99 and $9.99, so I went with 6 books for $2.99. Gemma is now at 5 books for $1.99! Smooth move, Gemma!
2. The $2.99 still gets me into the 70% royalty rate. (So I make about $2.02 per Boxed Set sold.)
3. Because I kept the Boxed Set at a Bargain Book Price (Free to $2.99), it was picked up by such superfab Ereader-Centric Blogs like ENT (Ereader News Today – probably the biggest blog for Kindle Readers) and Cheap e-Reads (“the” blog for Nook Readers).
4. After ENT and Cheap e-Reads featured my Boxed Set, I skyrocketed onto all the Bestseller Lists – hitting both Amazon’s Movers & Shakers at #3 as well as their Top 100 Bestseller List and also hitting B&N’s Top 100 Bestseller List where I stayed for over two full weeks and became the #1 Bestselling Book for Nook!!!
5. Even in January, after I’m off those major Bestseller Lists, I’m still making between $200 and $300 PER DAY, just on this Boxed Set alone! And my backlist sales are seeing exponential growth as well!!!
6. I cross-pollinated all the books in this set…meaning many of the characters you meet in Book One – Bootscootin’ Blahniks – are still in Book Six – Fluid Fulfillment. Although I’ve taken my sub-genres from chick lit, gone-country to humorous mystery across the course of all 6 books, the romantic comedy, humor, action-packed adventure and the characters involved carry all-the-way from Book 1 to Book 6.
In a golden nutshell:
A Boxed Set, with a Purple Cow cover (thanks to Laura Morrigan) and a Purple Cow price got me Purple Cow VISIBILITY and Purple Cow-level sales!!!
Now then…speaking of Boxed Set Covers…here’s something to be aware of, which I did not know till trial and two errors:
Each platform will need a different-size and type of cover.
I know…Uggghhh!!!
But here’s the scoop on that:
1. Kindle will take a standard cover size of 600 x 581
2. But here was the error I got on Nook:
‘”Please ensure that the cover image that you are uploading is between 750 pixels and 2000 pixels in length.”
***So superfab Laura Morrigan did a version to match that size too.***
3. And here was the error I got on Smashwords (and for that reason the Boxed Set has still not been distributed to Sony, Kobo, nor iPad…as Laura is now making a new cover for that version too):
“We do not accept 3D covers; please upload a 2D cover”
What does that mean?
Instead of my original cover
We have to go with one like this…where it doesn’t have that 3D Boxed effect:
So for right now…each Boxed Set has to have three cover versions, unless you choose a flat-style 2D image like above, although, I personally think the 3D stands out more.
Although, that said…here’s a superfab one done by The WG2E’s very own Sibel Hodge…and I’m thinking that should pass as “flat-2D”, right, Sibel? Have you had any feedback on that?
Okay, It’s Your Turn WG2E-Land: How many of you have Boxed Sets now? What have your results been with this type of Ebook Product? How many of you plan to release Ebook Boxed Sets in 2012?
The Best of The WG2E Ebook Boxed Set Wishes — D. D. Scott
Good thinking, D.D.! Great sales! Congrats!
Thanks bunches, Jeanne!
I’m beginning to see more and more Ebook Boxed Sets now. So I think the idea is really beginning to take off!
It’s such a great product to treat your new readers too, plus it makes the perfect Ebook Gifting product for all your current fans to use to introduce your books to their friends and family too!!!
I did really really well with the Ebook Gifting angle of my Boxed Set over the holidays and did a ton of promoting and how-to teaching of that very idea (on my D. D. Scott-ville Blog)!!!
***Note: B&N Nook PubIt even tracks for you now how many of each of your titles has been gifted! I hope Kindle does that soon too!!!
I was wondering if Amazon counts each book in the boxed set in their rankings or the boxed set itself?
Super idea!
Nancy Jill
Happy Monday, Nancy!
The Boxed Set is its own “book” if you will…so each sale of it counts as one sale.
Does that make sense for you?
Cheers!!!
Fab sales numbers, DD! Did you submit to ENT or did they just pick it up when it was free? Being on ENT definitely gives yours sales a fab boost, and they’ve just opened up again for submissions!
I had no idea about the different covers. I saw on B&N that Gemma has her 3D cover on there, so it’s weird that Smashwords don’t accept them. I agree that the 3D covers look better if you have several books in the box set. As mine first box set is only 2 books, it works OK with the standard cover, although I did use them same sizes for Smashwords and Amazon and I didn’t have a problem with it, even though it’s not the normal sized cover. When my 3rd Amber Fox mystery comes out (probably in Feb) I’ll also be doing a 3 box set of those, too.
Thanks bunches, Sibel!
I thought the Boxed Set would be a hit, but I had no clue just how big it would be!!!
I had paid for an Ebook of the Day slot on ENT for Lip Glock, but then, totally by surprise, Greg of ENT chose to feature my Boxed Set too ’cause he thought his readers would luuuvvv it and he’d never seen such a great deal!!!
I was over the moon!!! And still am…LOL!
The very next day, Cheap e-Reads (which is “the” big Nook Readers Blog) picked it up too!
And ohhh yeahhh…u betchya, I’ll be booking a ton more ENT features!!! I’ve gotten the best results ever on ENT!!! (Wavin’ atchya, Greg!) Speaking of which, I need to get him to Guest Post for us, don’t I?!
I know on the 3D vs 2D Covers, crazy, right?!
Nook took the 3D just fine, but needed the dimensions changed.
I totally don’t get Smashwords saying Apple won’t take 3D…it’s going on iPads and iPhones for crap’s sake!!! Uhmmmm…that’s why Apple rocks,’ cause of their 3D graphics.
Who knows…but I want it distributed to Sony, Kobo and Apple, so cover three here I come!!!
Oh…and I’m also going to see if Cheap e-Reads has sponsorships…hopefully, they do too!!!
They don’t… yet. I’m working with the owners of The-Cheap.net for some very exciting things in the next year!
One way authors can get their books on The-Cheap is to follow the posting guidelines int he Notes for the Facebook Group Authors on the Cheap!
The owner of the site is an absolute GEM! Most of the piggies are just very passionate readers who started reaching out to Nook users because no one else was. And the KDP select has been a very big issues for Nook users. And they’ve noticed which books were on their Wishlists that are just GONE now…. and it hasn’t made them feel very good. She had a recent post about some of the future things coming from Nook, such as how Liberty Media’s stake in B&N and talks of spinning off the Nook (anyone who followed that original business KNOWS Liberty Media, which OWNS TV show channels like Discovery Channel) only wanted the Nook system. Barnes and Noble was very successful with this business model of spinning off with Gamestop.
Anyway, The-Cheap.net is a great place to get exposure and they don’t charge anything. You post your book on Authors on the Cheap (1 per day) and eventually you’ll get picked up. To give you an idea about how awesome the readers are over there? I was giving away my book for free and 3 readers posted in the comments how touched they were I was giving away fro free that they just bought the book! My ebook signing tour was there on January 4th and over 100 of her readers signed up for my newsletter to get a free, signed ebook copy of Cancelled (I am not using Kindlegraph, I explain how I’m signing ebooks on eawestwriting.blogspot.com).
DD if you’d like, we just help a Nook gifting event for readers on Jan 1. Next time I know of an event coming up (two are in the works now) I will shoot you and email so you can let the authors here know. It’s a great way for new authors to get free exposure.
This is great scoop, Elizabeth, and thanks bunches for sharing!
Yes…please shoot me an email when you know about the next Cheap e-Reads Event! I would luuuvvv to participate, and I bet a ton of our WG2E Author Peeps would too!
To be honest, I had never heard of them. Thank goodness I use Google Alerts because otherwise I’d have had no idea why my sales shot through the roof on Nook one early December morning and have ever since!!!
DD. I did leave a message on your website to contact me about how you managed to get a boxed set. I am planning to do this hopefully for my teen angel series and maybe my romance series. Let me know, as I think it’s a really good idea.
Good Mornin’, Julie!
You create your own Boxed Set, Julie, by simply formatting all your books together in one file then uploading that as your “book”.
Does that answer your question? I’m not sure I know what you’re asking…
One key thing to remember is to have a really terrific Table of Contents – just like you would in an Anthology. You do NOT want your readers to have to click through the entire set to find the story they want to read first.
Does this help you with what you want to know?
Cheers to you!!!
Amazing results, DeeDee – fantastic!
My publisher did a boxed set with my first two novels, but I haven’t actually done any promotion for it. A few copies have sold here and there, but nothing like what you’ve done. I’ll need to take advantage of some of your tips!
Have at ‘em, Talli!
I’m learning that all the Ereader-Centric Blogs luuuvvv Boxed Sets! For one thing, they don’t have too many. And two, those they have are not priced well (meaning they’re outside the Bargain Book range of 99 cents to $2.99) so they can’t feature ‘em even if they want to.
And thanks bunches for the superfab sweet shout-out re my numbers.
It’s not the money to me, as y’all know. It’s that I reached another 6000+ readers in December, and most of those were new readers, because all my current fans had already read each of these books so probably didn’t buy the Boxed Set, although, many of them emailed me to tell me they’d Ebook Gifted the Set for Christmas! Yippeeee!!!
Boxed Bliss is right! Beyond the fabulous money, there’s the thrill of doing something SO SMART all on your own. That’s always the thrill for me. Look what I did with my own little brain!
Double thanks for sharing.
Consuelo
U betchya, Consuelo!
And you’re sooo right on the value of what I call – thanks to Seth Godin – a Purple Cow idea!!!
If you haven’t read his Purple Cow book, it’s a must!
Basically, it’s about being a Purple Cow in what I refer to as a barnyard full of brown heifers and/or black angus and dairy cows. You want to be the Purple Cow that stands out. And you want your product – i.e. book – to be its own Purple Cow too!!!
Cheers to Purple Cows!!!
Brilliant, DD, just brilliant! What a way to start a new year!
Great idea to get Greg of ENT to guest post. He’s a great friend to writers & a gem to work with!
It was a Happy New Year indeed in D. D. Scott-ville, Ruth! LOL!!!
And wow, I too am a huge ENT (Greg) fan!!!
I’ll email him today about being our WG2E Guest!!!
A word on the technical side of boxed sets:
DD mentioned Gemma Holiday. And this is in NO WAY meant to be a diss on her or anything like that. Her boxed set was featured on The-Cheap.net the same day as my guest post this month. One of the problems readers were experiencing was the file was so large, their older ereaders were having a huge problem handling the file. It was getting stuck, forcing them to turn the ereader off.
This is something authors need to think about. The older devices, while they get software upgrades, have the cheapest, best hardware from over 2 years ago. Images, especially if you are putting in the cover titles for each book, are a quick way to bloat the file. One way around this is to scale the image down and lower the percentage at which the JPG saves at. Have only ONE about the author. Use links for readers who need to get to information, such as “More Works by Me” at the end of each story rather than put that page at the end of each book.
I feel really bad for the readers and for Gemma who had to face this head on. But the last thing you want is a bunch of 1 star reviews as what happened on Nook for her boxed set because of formatting issues.
Great info, Elizabeth, and something I haven’t thought about
And that’s totally why I do NOT do my own formatting!
Never in a gazillion million years would I think of that, because I don’t know anything about that!
But…my Go-To Format Guy Rob Siders of 52 Novels – who formats for Joe Konrath and Barry Eisler too – does know all that great scoop!!!
Cheers to that!!!
And also thanks for sharing this info, Elizabeth!
Wow! What fabulous information! This article/comment group is worth printing out. People are so free with their resources and knowledge. I appreciate it enormously.
You are sooo welcome, Sandy!
That’s what The WG2E is all about…
Writers helping writers reach readers!
We’re thrilled to be able to help you any way we can in your Indie Epub Journey!
Thanks so much for the great post and tips!
U betchya, Tamara!!!
How ’bout you…are you thinking about doing a boxed set any time soon?
Congrats, D.D.! Those numbers are awesome and you sooo deserve it!
Luv the caricature drawing of you. Did Laura do that?
Thanks sooo very much, Alicia!
I had a wonderful Russian Disney World artist do my caricature! It was sooo much fun!!!
But Laura then was able to use the caricature to create the front of the Boxed Set.
It is sort of what I am after, DD. I shall remember that for the future. I think it was the cover design that confused me, thinking it was something complicated. Which I believe is done by your designer. Shall have to think about that one.
Yep…Laura Morrigan does all my covers, and she’s the absolute best!!!
I just send her my ideas and she creates the magic!!!
But do remember the 3D vs 2D issue for Boxed Sets…’course that could all change quickly in our multi-media world.
It seems like every time I upload a new title, there’s something different in the specs than the previous go-round.
And good, I’m glad I got your question answered.
Cheers!!!
You’ve had such fantastic success with it. It’s making me really antsy to get both of my series released. Still waiting on cover art for the Fate with a Helping Hand series, but that one is just days away from being released. The Texas Hearts series will be released late January/early Feb. I can’t wait to see how they do!
Thanks for the heads up about the 3D cover. I’ll have to make sure I can get a 2D for BN and Smashwords!
Lisa Mondello
http://www.lisamondello.blogspot.com
Very exciting news, Lisa, regarding your upcoming releases! Please keep us posted!!!
And yes, definitely check out both 3D and 2D cover designs! That was one little blip I had no clue on till it happened!
Cheers!!!
Glad you’ve had such success with your boxed set! Donna Marie Rogers and I released our Welcome to Redemption set of 1-6 just before Christmas and while we haven’t seen explosive numbers like yours, they’ve been steady at about 10-15 per day total for Amazon and BN. We ran into the same thing with the file being too large and had to shrink the size of the individual book covers, and we also ran into the problem with the 3D-vs-2D at SW. Our wonderful cover artist Tamra Westberry (LOVE HER!) quickly made us a flat cover that you can see here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/116909
Because the first two stories are already free on Amazon and we hope to keep them that way, we priced the set at $3.95 more for the convenience of a one click-vs-6 click buy for the series. This is the series readers have written and asked for more stories to, so we’re writing more and might be able to get a second boxed set out by Christmas 2012 for the next 4 stories.
I’d seen Dean Wesley’s boxed sets, but you were the true inspiration for us DD! Thanks!
U betchya, Stacey!
And I’m sooo tickled I inspired you to give Boxed Set Bliss a try!!! Keep us posted on your progress!!!
You brought up a terrific point right here too:
“…the convenience of a one click-vs-6 click buy for the series…”
This is another angle I used in my promo but forgot to mention in my post…so thanks bunches for mentioning that!!!
Way to go D.D. Those are amazing figures. Boxed sets are a great idea and something I will definitely think about when all 3 of my series are finally out.
Thanks bunches, Alison!
And Go, Girl, Go with your very own Boxed Set Bliss!!!
Cheers, my friend!!!
Congratulations, D. D. – I love it.
The Lord has used you to renew my hope in making an income — a great income — through our words.
I’m sooo glad I could inspire you to go for the gusto of your Indie Epub dreams, Paula!
Now all you’ve got to do is begin…
And we’re here to help you any way we can!
Welcome to The WG2E!!!
P.S. It can take awhile, and there are no guarantees of success, but if you work really, really hard, and produce great books for great prices, and learn how to reach readers, you’ve got a great shot at doing well.
Great results. I’ve thought about putting my romance novels into one book, too, but I just called it an anthology. I like the term “boxed set” better.
The 3D graphics are more eye-catching, but what can you do?
Congrats to you on your success!
Thanks sooo very much, Delaney!
And yes, what you said here is sooo worth re-emphasizing, as I’ve had a bunch of email questions about this very thing today…
When you create your Boxed Set, you are creating a single Ebook in format and will just have to upload that one “book”, but you let your cover as a Boxed Set look (3D) and/or a 2D flat but one showing all the books in the product help you work the promo angle of this being a special product with unique value for your readers.
By the way, D. D. — are your books enrolled in the KDP Select program?
I see one priced at $0.00 on Amazon.com — and forgive me if you’ve already mentioned it but I don’t see it directly above — but is that how it’s the zero price because you put it in KDP Select?
And is the $12,000 revenue from the batch of $500,000 that Amazon says KDP Select had available for writers in December 2011, with more coming in 2012?
Thanks for your responses!
I do NOT use KDP Select, Paula. I do not like the Exclusivity factor nor those Pools of Money, at least not the way Amazon is using those tools in their Select Program.
You can catch all the scoop on what I call my “Ridin’ The Free-way” Experiment right here:
http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com/d-d-scotts-ebook-sales-now-selling-more-ebooks-in-one-month-than-the-entire-last-year
Basically, I set the book that started it all for me – Bootscootin’ Blahniks – Free back in September, at which time I began my “the first one is on me” strategy, and wow did that ever work too! I’ve now had over 80,000 downloads of that one book alone, which has lead to exponential growth in my backlist sales since then (I’ve sold 45,000 books since September 2011, whereas I’d sold only 5000 from August 2010 – August 2011).
***Note: Many authors here in WG2E-Land are now reporting that, because of Select, Amazon is no longer matching Free prices like they used to when I did it. So I’m not sure that approach will work now, but it could be worth a try.
My $14,000 from December is all from my own sales and is not part of KDP Select in any way. None of my books are in Select. It appears, based on the 60,000+ peeps who joined Select, each author, on average, will make around $10 from that $500,000 pool. Authors are reporting that they are seeing some increase in their backlist sales from going Select, but many readers are reporting that they’re totally turned-off by it because now they can’t get their favorite authors who are in Select on their Nook, Sony, Kobo or iPad Ereaders and Apps.
Great questions, Paula!!!
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer and clear it all up.
U betchya, Paula!!!
DD CONGRATS on such amazing success! I am having the same issue with smashwords and Kindle BUT hey, it’s worth the adjustment to reach the readers and make the $$ right? This was a fantastic post, I always love WG2E, you guys really share the most raw information and it gives me hope that I will be there one day.
Alishia Willardson, Author Of:
Live the Life You Love “Relationships” and “You Deserve It”
http://www.alishiawillardson.blogspot.com
Thanks sooo very much, Alishia, and I’m thrilled you’re finding the inspiration you need here at The WG2E.
“Sharing the most raw information” is the only way we can truly help each other along our Indie Epub Journeys.
Only if we have access to facts can we make sound business decisions…and that’s one of the things we strive to provide here at The WG2E.
Cheers to you in your very own Indie Epub Journey!