I’m back from maternity leave! Wow, that went fast. It’s hard to believe my newbie is 2 months old already. What’s that you say? You want pictures? Well, okay…
I may be a bit biased, but I think he’s pretty darn cute.
While I was away playing Mommy, another fabulous thing happened –my High Heels Mysteries Boxed Set hit the New York Times Bestseller list… again! It hit the first time back in February, so I was shocked and beyond thrilled that it hit again six months later. Not only that, but the books in this set are all from 2006-2009 – at least three years old! If this isn’t proof that ebooks have no shelf life, I don’t know what is.
Considering this recent excitement, I wanted to talk today about boxed sets. As you can tell, they have been very good to me. 
I love boxed sets because not only do they give you another title to put out, but they also give you a title at a higher price point. By far, my bestselling title is my boxed set of the first 5 books in my High Heels series… which usually sells for $9.99. I get the highest 70% royalty possible at Amazon with this book, which, as you can imagine, also makes it my biggest money maker. So, today I’ve put together my list of Dos and Don’ts when publishing a boxed set.
DO: bundle similar books. But they don’t all have to be a part of a series! Any books you write in a similar tone, bundle those. Or any books you have out that could have a common thread – time period, genre, length, etc. You can bundle anything!
DO: make a 3D cover. Something about a cover that shows how many books you’re getting right in the picture tends to entice readers more than a flat cover telling readers how many books they get. Most people are very visual, so seeing two books for one price feels like more of a bargain. (Note: one exception to this is Smashwords, which does not allow 3D covers. You’ll have to go flat there, but in my opinion, it’s worth doing two covers to get a 3D one at the other sites.)
DO: price it lower than the books bought separately would cost. It doesn’t have to be significantly lower, but low enough that the reader is getting a deal. For example, my boxed set of 3 books normally sells for $6.99, where each book is $4.99 sold separately. My boxed set of 5 books sells for $9.99 – mostly so I can get the 70% still. I have a bundle of short stories that sells for $3.99.
DO: use your boxed set for sales. Just like you would any other title, feel free to put this on sale! Don’t be afraid of losing money by pricing low – in most cases you will make up for it in quantity. I know I always do!
DON’T: EVER make your boxed set free. If you have all of your books available for free, there’s nothing left for fans to buy once they finish it. This way you will see sales drop. And fast! Even if you do have other books to purchase, don’t make your boxed set free. You can gain just as much visibility putting a single book free as a boxed set without giving away so much.
DON’T: include too many books in one boxed set. I’ve noticed significant issues with my 5 book boxed set as far as loading on devices go. (Especially at Nook!) It’s just a huge file, and it slows people’s ereaders down. I’ve gotten WAY more 1 star reviews than I care to count just because of file and loading problems. Which really sucks, since it has nothing to do with the actual stories, you know? If I could do it again, I’d break it up into smaller sets. 3-4 books seems almost perfect, from what I’ve seen.
DO: have a follow up book! I see my highest sales on a) my 5 books boxed set and b) book #6 in the series. People buy the boxed set, then are hungry for book #6. I have NEVER put book #6 on sale. It always sells at $4.99, because my hope is that by the time I’ve hooked them with my bargain boxed set, they are fans who are willing to pay a little more to keep reading the series. (Note: this doesn’t mean that you have to wait until you have a follow up book to make a boxed set, but if you have, say, 4 books – box 3 and let 4 stand alone as your big money maker.)
DON’T: worry about boxed set sales cannibalizing sales of your single titles. I have never experienced this myself. If anything, having more titles out gives you more visibility and adds to overall higher sales.
It’s Your Turn, WG2E-Land: Any other thoughts, questions, ideas? Feel free to shout them out. I’m around today and checking the thread often!
~ Gemma
Gemma Halliday is a New York Times Bestselling Author, who had a hard time figuring out what she wanted to be when she grew up. She worked as a film and television actress, a teddy bear importer, a department store administrator, a preschool teacher, a temporary tattoo artist, and a 900 number psychic, before finally selling her first book, Spying in High Heels, in 2005 and deciding to be a writer. Since then, she has written several mystery novels and been the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Reader’s Choice award and three RITA nominations. Her books have hit both the USA Today and the New York Times Bestseller lists. And she’s a proud member of our WG2E Family.
Good ideas; thanks for sharing! When I had my first three indie titles, I bundled them, even though they were unrelated. I’m not much for series (I know, readers love them, but I much prefer complete standalone not necessarily related stories, and if I’m not writing what I enjoy, what’s the point?). I do have a continuing saga that I intend to bundle after the last book is published next year. As for my first bundle, it’s not selling a whole lot, but the high royalty on the higher cover price makes it worthwhile, so I’ll probably just keep it available.
Gemma your new baby is so cute!! and great post too. Congratulations!!
Gemma, thanks for such a helpful & informative post! Baby is adorable!
Gemma, this is perfect timing for this column – as I am just in the midst of putting together my first boxed e-book collection.
I initially got the idea from watching how successful folks like D.D. Scott and Scott Nicholson and yourself have been – offering boxed e-book collections.
I had a look at your guidelines for boxed sets and I’m happy to admit that I hit every one of those “Do’s” successfully – while at the same time dodging the “Don’ts”.
I’ll admit that I took an awful lot of information from D.D. Scott’s 10 YEARS AND 24 HOURS before I began “building” my boxed set – but I hit those “Do’s” of yours so well that I think I might possibly be brilliant.
Let me check.
I asked my cat if I was brilliant. She said yes. I know it sounded like “meow” – but I’m pretty sure that means “yes”.
Let me double-check.
I asked my cat if she wanted to be fed.
She said “meow”.
I asked her if her litter box needs scooping.
She said “meow”.
Yup, I’m pretty sure that “meow” means “yes”.
Thanks for the great column, Gemma.
OMG, I just spewed coffee on my keyboard. Your cat is awesome.
MEOW.
(Steve’s cat)
Thanks for the advice Gemma!
And your not biased – your baby boy is pretty darn cute – thanks for sharing
Your little one is adorable, Gemma!
Thanks for sharing the precious photo!
And cheers and huge WooHoos on your latest appearance on the NYTimes List! U Go, Girl!
I also luuuvvv what you’re saying here about Ebook Boxed Sets! And I can tell you I’m another one who’s made a wonderful fortune on my Boxed Set, and you betchya I’ll be coming out with a couple more this holiday season.
Speaking of which, the holiday season seems to totally rock as a great time to get out those boxed sets!!! Readers have new Ereaders to fill and Gift Cards to do it with!
Oh, yes! That’s one cute baby! And how neat that your boxed set hit the list while you were focusing time on the little one… Congratulations! Thanks for this fantastically informative post.
Thanks much for sharing this. I’m working on coming up with a boxed set for 2013 and wondered how much freedom I have in doing so. I can see doing it for the 1st book of all my series
great ideas.
Gemma, you are your baby are both beautiful! Thanks for all the advice and I have a series to bundle, so this is great news. I have a great cover artist, but I don’t know if he can do 3D. How or who do you use to do this?
Thanks, and continued good luck to you.
Great info, Gemma. Thank you! Congratulations on hitting the NY Times list again! And your baby boy is darling. Thanks for sharing.
Gemma, All great info. I’m glad you pointed out the issue with receiving low ratings from readers for problems with downloads, etc.
I have seen a couple of review sites that actually do two-part reviews…keeping the quality of the story from the technical issues…as a separate line/ranking for typos, format, etc.
This, I suspect, was started to help readers differentiate the wave of self publishers, and will hopefully spread to larger sites like Amazon and B&N. Most format issues can be easily fixed; interesting writing…not so much!
Thanks for sharing your post…and the photo of the sweet little one! Congrats!
Your baby is adorable! And congrats on your boxed set making the NYT list again! This post comes at just the right time for me. I’m hoping to have a boxed set out by the end of the year and you just answered some important questions on that. Thanks!
This is interesting, because I am thinking of creating a boxed set for my first 3 Angel ebooks, and the next 3 etc. Also for all my romance series when they are all epublished. The latter will be 7 stories in all, which at say 8000 each (although current one I’m writing is getting to be about 17,000), will be about 56000 words. Is that too long for a boxed set? If so, then I might have to do two sets for the first half of the series and the second half.
Not at all! I think that’s perfect. 56,000 words is about novel length, so I think you could easily charge novel-length prices. Personally, I charge $3.99-$4.99 for a full novel.
Your son is gorgeous, Gemma, congratulations!
And thank you for the great advice about boxed sets.
AWESOME advice, Gemma! Some I’m already doing, and some I’ll definitely do for my upcoming Christmas boxed set. Thanks.
And your little guy is adorable! Good thing you love your job or you wouldn’t want to come back.
Question: I have the print edition of my ‘boxed set’ called Stacey Joy Netzel Novella Collection. The ebook version is called Stacey Joy Netzel Boxed Set. I’m going to have a 3D cover made for the ebook version…should I leave it as ‘Boxed Set’ or switch to ‘Novella Collection’ to match the print so they can be linked on Amazon?
Would love your advice (or anyone’s!) on this.
I think linking on Amazon is important, but I know that you don’t need the same title to be linked. They may not link automatically, but you can alert Amazon that they are the same book. I know I have books that were re-titled that are linked to older version with the old title. (Even though I’d prefer they not be!)
Thank you! So new question, which title “Novella collection” or “Boxed Set” do you think will draw readers more?
Boxed Set, definitely! I say that just because it’s the language that other authors are using, so more likely to be searched by readers browsing for multi-book collections.
Thanks for posting the pic of your precious baby boy.
Your post is very timely for me. I will be releasing the 3rd in a series in November and am planning to do a boxed set for Christmas of the 3 books. According to your post, it sounds like I need to write a 4th to sell as a stand alone.
Thank you for the great Do’s and Don’ts!
Thanks for the kind words, everyone! Baby is currently napping (God bless him! Sleep is wonderful!), so I’ll try to check in often today.
Most intriguing. How do you do the 3D cover?
I wish I had an easy answer for this. I’ve done mine the hard way – by hand in Photoshop. But, there are some cover designers that can do them fairly cheaply. Next time around, I will be going that route. By hand was way too time consuming. Live and learn.
Gemma, he is beautiful! Love all the do’s and don’ts of box sets. I’m hoping to have one up this year. Love those 3-D box sets, they look so cool.
Your baby is adorable! Thanks for the tips.
Thanks for the info, Gemma.
You saved my life and my sanity.Well, maybe just my sanity.
I just put a six-volume boxed set on Amazon Kindle Select, along with the six books seperately. I set up a schedule for my five free book promotional days for the six individual books, and I was going to do the same with the six-volume set.
Then I read one of your “Don’ts” above and I smacked myself in the head.
You wrote: “NEVER make your boxed set free. If you have all of your books available for free, there’s nothing left for fans to buy once they finish it. ”
Duh… I never thought of this. But it makes so much sense.
I’ll refuse the offer of the five free promotional days for the six-volume set, but I’ll still get the fees Amazon pays to authors for Amazon Prime subscribers borrowing that book.
You’re a gem, Gemma.
So glad I could help! I will admit that I have deeply discounted my 5 book boxed set at times – even going as low as $.99 for the 5 books – which seems to have a good affect on sales. So, in lieu of free, if you’re in need of a sales shot-in-the-arm, a deep discount sale might work.
Also… if I had 6 books, I’d also make 2, 3-book boxed sets.
In fact, I have. In addition to my 5 book boxed set, I now have 2 other boxed sets of the sames series. Vol. I contains books 1-3 plus a short story, and Vol. 2 contains books 4-6 plus a short story. I think the more options you have for readers, the more visibility you have and more overall sales.
Excellent advice. And excellent job on your newest “release.” That is one cute baby.
I’m about to do release my first box set, and have to admit, I was worried about how it would effect sales of the individual titles. So, I’m relieved to hear it’s not a problem.
Oh and mega congrats on hitting the NYT again!
This is all great information, and I’ve only come to realize that I can do two box sets, one for my rom/com series, and one for my single title. Now for the big question. Once I have my cover, how do we download this on Kindle? I have six books there now, but is there a special page for bundles? Call me confused.
Thanks for taking the time out of your busy baby day to answer our questions, Gemma.
No special page. You just upload it the same way you would any book, right in the same KDP portal. (or the same way at any of the other vendors) I’d just put in the description and somewhere in the title that it’s a boxed set. You can also use the words “boxed set” and “bundle” in the keywords if you want. You’ll want to bundle all of your books into one big file, and, depending on how big the file is, get it formatted. But that’s it!
Great info. And adorable baby! Thanks for sharing both!
Smart and useful. Many thanks.
— jules
Okay, Gemma, bundle all the files into one big super-duper file and download. Okay, got that. Thanks so much, I think I can do this!!
Congrats on being a NYT best selling author! And twice-0mg how exciting!
Thanks for this great info. It is something I am now thinking about doing so the timing was perfect. I have 3 books out in a series and I’m writing the 4th.
Very cute baby, btw
gemma, this article “really” has me thinking
i have a few questions :
1) what is and how do you make a 3D cover?
2) what if one already had book one in a series free? do you find having a box set, then full price for the subsequent book a better strategy than first book free, or do you combine that sometimes
3) even though your five-count box is your #1 seller, you’d still choose (if you could) to make your box set smaller? you feel you’d still get as many sales with a smaller box set?
thanks so much for your post, really enjoyed it
1) Here’s a link to my boxed set on Amazon so you can see the 3D cover:
http://www.amazon.com/Heels-Mysteries-Boxed-Books-ebook/dp/B00492CJVS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348238299&sr=8-1&keywords=high+heels+mysteries+boxed+set
Basically, it pops off the page instead of being a flat, rectangle cover. You can do this by hand, using Gimp or Photoshop, or you can usually hire a cover artist fairly cheaply to do one. I know some artist only charge in the range of $25 for a 3D cover.
2) You can definitely do both a boxed set and free. I’ve done this a lot. Now, if you only have 2 books and book #1 is always free, it may not work as well. But you can definitely put one of the book sup free for special promotions with out it affecting sales too much.
3) I do think I’d get as many sales, yes. I’ve done a couple of other boxed sets of 3 novels and 1 short each that are selling really well lately. AT the time that i made my 5 book boxed set, those 5 books were my entire series. If I could do it over, I’d have put books 1-4 in a boxed set and kept 5 single. I think I probably would have ended up making more money in the long run off of book#5 being single than I have with all 5 in the same boxed set.
Good luck!
Hi, Gemma! Your little guy is so darling! Congratz! I loved every phase of my children’s lives, even now that they are adults. Enjoy him while he’s small–he’ll grow up fast!
And thank you so much for your tips on how to market bundles, or boxed sets, how to price them, what you learned about file size and how that affected sales, etc. I know that my site had large files and when it didn’t load quickly, people got irritated. I had to degrade the quality of the header, etc. I don’t think it made much difference visually, so that is good. Ugh, we live in a fast-paced world!
My covers are already 3D, if anyone is interested in seeing them at http://gloriaharchar.com. My daughter, Audrey, did them. She has a website at http://ladylittle.com. She recently created her site, and she’s still working on uploading her art and adding information, but you can see what she has. Contact her and ask her for prices if you’re interested in having her do something for you guys.