Ebook Boxed Sets: Good Idea or No?

A conversation between L.J. Sellers and Peg Brantley. Join us in the comments section!

Peg: After my first book was published in early 2012, I became aware of a different kind of marketing tool—boxed sets for ebooks. I couldn’t wait until I had at least three books out so that would be an option for me to gain readers and new sales. Well, now I have three books. They’re not a series but they do have common geography and overlapping characters, so they would probably work as a set. And then I noticed that L.J. had never offered a set and I wondered what she thought of the idea.

L.J: I was just getting ready to combine the first three Jackson books in a set when I received an offer from Thomas & Mercer. I signed the contract and let go of control. Later, when I suggested to my marketer that we create a boxed set featuring the first book of several authors' series, she said Amazon didn’t offer those. Her reason was that their data indicated customers didn’t read all the way through longer ebook files, and that “wasn’t a good customer experience.” I guess it depends on how many novels you include and whether the books are similar enough in content and quality to hold a reader’s interest. But I’m still curious to know if a boxed set from a single author could expand sales and/or readership.

Peg: That’s interesting. As far as single author experiences go, look at Wool by Hugh Howey. I admit I was a bit surprised that my ebook seemed to go on and on, but I loved the story. And, although it wasn’t a boxed set, I devoured all of Michael Connelly’s Lincoln Lawyer series one right after the other before his latest release. So I’m not sure I agree with Amazon’s statement about longer ebook files not being a good customer experience.

L.J: Just because Amazon doesn’t offer boxed sets doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea. Other writers have collaborated to create such offerings. Recently for example, Joe Konrath and five other authors released a boxed set of horror stories. It’s been in the top 300, and is currently at #803 in the whole Kindle store, so it’s selling hundreds of copies a day. But they’ve priced it at $.99, so no one’s making money on it. But they may be gaining new readers, and/or they may plan to increase the price very shortly. All six of those authors have many other books on the market, so they can afford to have one novel as a promotional giveaway. Not everyone can do that and still make a living.

Peg: That sounds intriguing. I like the idea of multiple-author boxed sets. Each author would likely pull in a few different readers who would then be exposed to different writers and their styles. And doesn’t selling hundreds of copies a day sort of bury the idea that it isn’t a good customer experience?

L.J.: Not necessarily. Buying a product is only the first step. And most people who read digitally buy many more books than they will ever consume. If those readers only get through one or two of the six stories, then the other authors don’t benefit.

But to a certain extent, you’re right. Just because Amazon labels it “not a good experience” doesn’t mean it’s a bad experience for consumers, who still get a great deal on ebooks. Amazon just has very high standards! We authors, on the other hand, tend to focus on sales as a measure of a book’s success. Still, I want people to read my novels, not just buy them. I think limiting a boxed set to three might the perfect middle ground.

Readers: Do you buy these sets? Do you read all the way through?
Writers: What has your experience been?

Why You Should be Using Pinterest to Promote Your Book

by guest blogger Melissa Woodson

As the publishing industry has constricted in recent years, authors have taken on more and more responsibility for promoting and advertising their own books. The traditional image of the introverted writer has become less and less viable, as successful authors have had to make their presence known on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. After all, the public isn’t likely to read your book if they don’t know it exists. And while traditional marketing and advertising often require a significant budget and specialized skills, social media is free and fairly easy to use. So why not get started with Pinterest?

What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a social network built around virtual bulletin boards. Instead of a timeline like Twitter or Facebook, you have a bulletin board that you “pin” photos to. Each photo has a caption that you can use to explain and/or link to more information. Other users can follow your board, comment on your photos and so on. The site’s popularity stems from its visual appeal and intuitive design. It’s easy to use, and visually oriented people find it easy to communicate with. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “But I don’t write picture books!” And that’s exactly why you should use Pinterest.

Visual Storytelling on Pinterest
Today’s marketplace is over-saturated with high-definition, carefully composed, hyper-manipulative imagery. Selling something as unassuming and understated as a book can be challenging in this context, but Pinterest can help you to close the gap. Successful social media users don’t try very hard to sell their products. Instead, they use social media as an outlet for storytelling and community engagement. Telling the story of your book’s creation, your genesis as an author or the subject of your work are all great ways to use the site. You can also invite other users to take part in or respond to the story and begin the process of community building.

Pinterest for Marketing
By using a series of images—whether you create them yourself or cull them from other sites—to tell stories and build relationships may not sound like an author’s job. But it is a great way to entice 21st century readers away from their laptops and into the pages of your book. As you begin to build a community of engaged followers on Pinterest, they will begin to do the work of marketing your book for you. Just wait until fans begin creating boards dedicated to your work!


In today’s media environment, literary creators need to be particularly savvy when it comes to using 21st century marketing tactics. The fact that you managed to tell a 300-page story without any pictures doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to sell it without using any pictures. Pinterest is an intuitive and social way of using visual images that authors can capitalize on without learning specialized skills or raising funds to hire photographers or graphic designers. The opportunity is simply too good for any writer interested in commercial success to pass up.

Melissa Woodson is a social media and outreach coordinator for 2U Inc., a higher education company that helps top-tier universities bring their masters degree programs online. The online LL.M. degree offered through Washington University in St. Louis and the Masters of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are among their partnered offerings. In her free time, she enjoys running, cooking, and making half-baked attempts at training her dog. Follow her on twitter @hungryhealthymj.

Is It Worth It to Create a Buzz in Print?

by Jen Blood, author of the Amazon-bestselling Erin Solomon mysteries

For the past year, I’ve done contract work for a local author’s cooperative here in the great state of Maine. The coop focuses on helping indie authors get their work published and distributed, offering services like book design, editing, printing, e-book formatting, marketing, and promotion. As a result, I’ve been in a unique position to watch indie publishing from an entirely different perspective than the one most common in the publishing world today: one where a great deal of emphasis is still placed on print books, while the majority of my online indie pals are firmly entrenched in the camp where digital is King.

Since I’m an indie author myself, these seemingly conflicting viewpoints have necessarily gotten me thinking: In this day and age, is there truly an advantage to the printed word, or are my cooperative cohorts clinging to a dying industry? To answer that question, I started crunching numbers, looking at stats, and talking to authors in both camps.

The first issue whether you're selling thousands of books every month or merely dozens, is the question of profitability. Since editing will be the same whether you’re going with digital or print, the next big cost to look at is book design. It used to be that designing print books was prohibitively more costly than it was to whip together an e-book for Kindle and Smashwords. Today, however, there are a proliferation of quality book designers who offer their services at surprisingly low rates—starting at as little as $100 and moving upward from there.

CreateSpace, Lulu, and a few of the other big-name POD publishers also provide free templates that are fairly simple to follow for the DIY indie looking to save a few bucks. So, unless you’re looking to create an aesthetically mind-blowing coffee table book, there isn’t a huge financial disparity between print and e-book design nowadays. As for book covers, I personally pay $99 for my cover through probookcovers.com; for an extra $30, my designer will do a high-res PDF of the full cover: front, back, and spine. As with just about everything else in this biz, the DIY option is cheaper and there are, of course, always more expensive options if you’re looking for something above and beyond. Either way, though, there’s not a big difference between coming up with a digital cover and the full print version.

That brings us to printing costs. Print on demand (POD) means that we indies are no longer stuck with a basement full of books because the only way we could get printing costs down enough to create a respectable profit margin was to order a print run of 500+ copies. Today, you can order as few as ten copies of your masterpiece and still be paying as little as $4.50 per book through CreateSpace for a full-length novel (including shipping).

My first novel, All the Blue-Eyed Angels, sells in print for $15, which means my profit is over ten bucks when someone buys a copy directly from me. As for shipping, with the exception of the books you’ll be purchasing to sell yourself, POD means that the publisher will handle the labor-intensive act of shipping your books, and the cost is passed on to the buyer.

To me, the bigger issue is what you plan on doing with them after the fact. Is it worth it to approach bookstores and libraries far and wide? What, exactly, does that do for the average author in today’s digital-centric world? I personally have taken the time to approach the local bookstores that know me, and they’ve been great about carrying my mysteries, promoting the series, and keeping me apprised when they’re running low on copies.

I’m asked frequently by locals here in my hometown which bookstores outside of the immediate area are carrying the novels, however, and I used to feel a little weird telling them that there were, in fact, none—like it somehow took some of my legitimacy away because I wasn’t shopping my titles around to every indie bookseller in the tri-county region. I stopped feeling badly about that, however, once I looked at the financial realities of placing my novels in bookstores.

Between time, travel expenses, the cost of creating and printing professional-looking sell sheets, and then factoring in a 40% standard bookstore discount, the reality is that I feel I’m better off investing a little bit of money in advertising or a little time in PR and selling more e-books that way, than I am spinning my wheels trying to convince bookstores to carry a couple of copies. I always have those sell sheets and a few extra copies handy when I’m traveling, of course, so that if I happen to be in or around a bookstore I haven’t approached before, it’s a simple matter.

 Otherwise, however,  I just can’t afford to make them a priority. So what, exactly, are print books good for? Paranormal suspense author Lisa Rayns notes, “Some people still only read print books and I also like to have hard copies. With the time you put into a novel, it’s nice to have something tangible to show for it.”

Beyond vanity, there’s the issue of having print copies for reviews and contests, many of which still don’t accept digital submissions. I’ve found opportunities to sell print copies at readings, signings, lectures, workshops, and seminars. I use them for giveaways, book club packages, donate them for raffles to local charitable events, and occasionally foist them on friends and family members as gifts.

What does this actually do for my profit margin overall? Not much. However, whenever I have an event at which print copies will be available, I invariably manage to get some PR from that event, which means more exposure and in turn more digital sales, not to mention more cool stuff to add to my portfolio and the media page on my website.

All of this leads back to the original question: Is it worth it to create a buzz for your books in print? While the answer will vary to some extent based on your goals as an author, I think at the end of the day it depends on just how much time and energy you’re expending to create that buzz in the first place. Signings, readings, book clubs, seminars, giveaways—these are all great opportunities to enhance name recognition and spread the word about your work, but in my mind it’s essential to strike a balance between these types of events and the online marketing necessary to maintain steady e-book sales.

Beyond that, it’s a matter of personal preference and comfort level: I have several friends who thrive on public appearances and face-to-face interaction with their readers and loathe time at the computer. I think those who can find a happy medium between the two—and still manage to eke out some time to actually write the next novel—will ultimately find the most success.

What do you think? If you’ve already published, did you choose to go with both digital and print copies? Have you tried the bookstore route? I’d love to hear what your experience has been in these changing times.

Jen Blood is a freelance journalist and editor, and author of the Amazon-bestselling Erin Solomon mysteries, ALL THE BLUE-EYED ANGELS and SINS OF THE FATHER. She runs the mystery book blog BloodWrites.com, and teaches seminars on social media and online marketing to indie authors from her home in midcoast Maine. Her third novel, the noir thriller MIDNIGHT LULLABY, will be released in December.