Support for Indie Authors discussion

Earlier this year, I completed the third (and last) book in a series and I'm now wondering if it's worth the effort to create a "book bundle" of the trilogy. The first book was released in 2014, the second one in 2015, and the third one was released in April. Each book can stand on its own so a reader doesn't have to read them in order. I have also written a few other books during that time period, but they aren't part of the series.

I don't sell a lot of books, typically in the hundreds of copies. I rarely give away free books, even fewer now that the Goodreads Giveaway program has become so expensive.

I'd like to hear opinions from those of you who have written a series of books.

Did you create a "book bundle" of the series and did you find it was worth the effort?

How soon did you create the "book bundle" after the release of the last book in the series?

Did you only release an eBook version of the series, or did you also release a paperback version?

Thanks.../Ernie

You don't have to do it. Once the series is complete Amazon will list the package, with the price equal to the sum of the books.

I discovered that they'd done that to my six book series. I doubt anyone has bought the package, though, given that most people who would buy the series at once would have already read the first one, so paying for all of them when you've already purchased the first one isn't going to happen.

In my case, the first book of the series is free (Amazon used to price match and I made the first one free on Smashwords), but people aren't going to remember that, so I'm guessing that packages have limited appeal.

Hope this helps

Jay wrote: "You don't have to do it. Once the series is complete Amazon will list the package, with the price equal to the sum of the books.

I discovered that they'd done that to my six book series. I doubt a..."
Are you saying that Amazon does this automatically? If so, that did not happen with my series of books.

If all it does is sum up the prices of all of the books, then there is not much point. I was expecting that I'd be able to set the price of the package to be less than buying them individually.

What Jay is talking about is a series page, not a bundle (or box set). Amazon automatically creates a series when you have two or more books out and you've set them up to be in the same series. Reasons this may not have happened are many, including something slightly different in the set up of the book, but you can ask Amazon to create a series page under the kdp support area. It's definitely helpful if you've got a freebie on book one because readers will see the other books on the same page.

As for creating a box set, in my opinion, there's no reason not to, especially if your books are enrolled in Select. Kindle Unlimited subscribers can only take out 10 books at a time and a complete series box set will count as a single book.

I have three complete series and all have been bundled. In fact, one of the main reasons I did this was to let customers know the series is indeed complete, since the Amazon created series page will say "complete" no matter if it is or isn't. A lot of readers won't read a series unless it's complete. This gives them options.

In general, I discount my box sets deeply. I've found that doing yhis in no way affects the sale of individual books because there are two different types of buyers: those who want a deal and those who will pay more in the end to be cautious upfront.

As to when I made them, each was different, but since my last series had a book out every six months, I waited six months to put out the box set.

Christina wrote: "What Jay is talking about is a series page, not a bundle (or box set). Amazon automatically creates a series when you have two or more books out and you've set them up to be in the same series. Rea..."
Thanks, Christina. My three books were already identified as being in the same series so I've just requested that a series page be created for them.

When I looked at your box sets, I noticed that you only created Kindle versions for them. Is there a reason you didn't create a paperback version as well? For myself, two-thirds of my sales are in the paperback format.

E.A. wrote: "When I looked at your box sets, I noticed that you only created Kindle versions for them. Is there a reason you didn't create a paperback version as well? For myself, two-thirds of my sales are in the paperback format."

A single omnibus version of each series would not be possible due to the size. Beyond that, physical box sets are not an option for Indies unless you physically bundle them yourself. This is not a bad option if you sell direct. Find a printer who can make a decorative sleeve in the right size and you've got an eye-catching piece for a con, but it likely won't be cost effective. On the rare occasions when I sold physical ebooks at an event, I gave a full series discount.

I actually wondered about this myself. I always wondered how books get bundled into box sets. My next few books are part of a series so I definitely might be looking into the whole bundling into box sets.

I've also heard that box sets are great sellers during the holidays for avid readers of series and people who love certain authors.

I guess I should provide an update on what has happened since I opened this topic. I submitted a request to have Amazon create a series page for the three books in my trilogy. It involved filling in a form providing the ASINs for the books in the series, which I did. However, I received a notification that my request was denied saying I didn't meet all of their requirements. Their response was a generic form letter saying this could have been caused by a variety of factors including that the books were not identified as being part of a series, the covers of the books did not indicate they were part of a series, or that the book descriptions didn't indicate they were part of the series.

This confused me because I knew my books were already identified as being part of the same series. I didn't want to change the covers of my books just to indicate they were part of a series so I pushed back. This time I got a more helpful response. After a few more back-and-forth's, all I ended up having to change was the first part of the description of each book (e.g. Book 1 of the Goliath Series:). The series page was created about a week later.

I'm also in the process of creating a single publication called "The Goliath Trilogy" which contains all three books. The new book has a new ISBN and a new cover and is larger (6"x9") in size than the original paperbacks (5.25 x 8"). This has proven to be a little more difficult as I didn't find the new KDP cover creator to be as easy to use as the one that was in Createspace. When my original books were converted from Createspace to KDP, I was warned that the templates that I originally used are not available in KDP so if I ever decide to change anything about the existing books, I'll have to start over with a new cover.

My existing books can be ordered and shipped by Amazon.ca (the Canadian site) which saves a lot of money in shipping costs for those of us north of the border. However, their website indicates my new book would only be available on Amazon.com and not on Amazon.ca. I complained about this and received a response indicating that my new book will, in fact, be available on Amazon.ca the same way it was on Createspace. They said they are in the process of updating their website to make this correction.

I'm hoping to have the new combined trilogy ready in time for the holiday season.

Update on this topic: I did create a new publication containing all three books in "The Goliath Trilogy" and put it on a "Boxing Week" sale of 99 cents. After the sale, I plan to price it at $6.95.

I didn't manage to get the paperback version ready in time for Christmas as the proof copy took several weeks to arrive and when it did, there was a problem with the cover. The next proof copy is supposed to arrive next week.