Box sets – the why and how?
After three years of publishing fiction, I finally have enough novels in a series to make a box set. Yet another new thing to learn in this long journey called ‘self-publishing’.
WHY BOTHER?
One of the main challenges facing self-published authors is being ‘discovered’. This doesn’t simply mean becoming popular but more importantly, people actually knowing our product exists.
One way to increase the likelihood of your book being spotted is to produce the same book in multiple formats.
For example, having ebook, print, audio, and large print formats.
Once three books in a set are published, then the books can be gathered and made into a set. One initial major effort (writing the books), results in multiple minor efforts to multiply the formats. You can then receive multiple income streams from each product.
HOW to make a box set
You will need a way to make the internal formatting and some sort of cover, either 2D or 3D.
If you are the owner of a Macintosh and haven’t bought Vellum yet – rush to do so. This software is a once-off lifetime buy and can format both digital and print books. Although I am technologically challenged it only took an hour to produce a beautiful book.
Vellum is set up to do box sets with a simple drag and drop technique. I then eliminated the repetitive front and back matter and made an overall copyright page for the three books and an overall front and back matter. Within the individual books, I kept the specific front matter (copyright and dedication) and specific back matter (call for reviews).
I don’t know how to do the interior outside of Vellum. You’ll have to google instructions for your particular software. The principles for front and back matter remain the same.
COVERS
- Look on line for other box sets in your genre and note down what you like and don’t like. This will help you either design your own using a template or as you liaise with a designer.
- I searched for a cover designer familiar with doing box set covers. I considered several and looked at their work.
- Together we made a 2D version (poster version) and a 3D version. She also made me some small meme advertisements and even a FB header. I decided to pay for this service rather than struggling to learn something new.
PRICING your box set
If you are wanting the full 70% royalty, Amazon limits your price choices to $2.99 – 9.99. You’ll only receive 35% for anything outside these limits.
I was happy with USD$9.99 as it was a $3 saving. I can also play with prices and put it on sale for $7.99.
Outside Amazon, you can price the books as you like. I also sell directly from my website/Facebook page. Since the second three-book set contains three books priced at $4.99 each, then having an overall price of $12.99 is reasonable.
BOX SET OPTIONS
You can box as many or as few as you like. However, the Amazon rules, means that I only plan to do three-book sets there.
However, I will probably do a second box-set for books 4-6 (completed in March 2022) and later a six-book box (July 2022) outside Amazon. This fits in with my purpose of having as many sales outside Amazon as possible.
Box sets are great for series but another option would be a set of standalone books set in the same country or the same genre. You might even have the first books in several sets in a box, that is, your set becomes a ‘taster’ set.
Other people have also done multi-author sets as a way to introduce multiple authors in one genre. Almost like a Reader’s Digest four-book set.
** I am not planning to do a physical/print box set at present because the box itself would be difficult and expensive to produce.
Readers – What are your favourite box set designs?
Authors – What questions do you have about box-sets?
** This article first appeared on the International Christian Fiction Writers blog on 20 February, 2020.