Author Topic: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?  (Read 2973 times)

MelanieMRodriguez

Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« on: October 04, 2018, 10:13:04 PM »
Cleaning up my backlist, I can see an old omnibus collection I have. Since Amazon pulls books in a series together to show the reader now, is it still a good idea to make one ebook full of an entire series for a slightly cheaper price?
 

Mark Gardner

Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2018, 10:38:12 PM »
As a writer, I'm not a fan of doing this because it devalues my writing-- especially if the omnibus is a discount price. Also, the omnibus ends up cannibalizing reviews from the individual books. Now, if I'm doing a special thing like Netgalley, I'll do an omnibus to maximize the NetGalley run.

As a reader, I'm a fan of the value of an omnibus, but it makes my yearly book count wonky, and manually updating my reading progress on goodreads more of a hassle.
 
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Maggie Ann

Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #2 on: October 04, 2018, 10:43:37 PM »
As a reader, I don't like more than 3-4 books in an omnibus. Otherwise, it just seems to go on forever. Of course, I like the value of paying less for the full series, but sometimes the value isn't there. I might get a few chapters in to the first book and find it's not something I really want to read, or there are a lot of typos, missing words or misplaced words. Then I've wasted my money.

Someone once said wait a year before putting together a box set/bundle/omnibus. I think that's good advice.
           
 
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MelanieMRodriguez

Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2018, 11:10:21 PM »
As a reader, I don't like more than 3-4 books in an omnibus. Otherwise, it just seems to go on forever. Of course, I like the value of paying less for the full series, but sometimes the value isn't there. I might get a few chapters in to the first book and find it's not something I really want to read, or there are a lot of typos, missing words or misplaced words. Then I've wasted my money.

Someone once said wait a year before putting together a box set/bundle/omnibus. I think that's good advice.

This series was made in 2009. I'm not losing money, just making my backlist look a little better and organized. Didn't know if the average reader still liked omnibuses or not.

 

Lex

Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #4 on: October 04, 2018, 11:11:05 PM »
I suspect readers still like them. I'm finding it less appealing as an author, because I price my books higher now than the last time I did an omnibus. If I bundled the first three novels of my main series together and priced at $9.99, I'd be giving the entire third book away for free.
 

LilyBLily

Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2018, 11:50:20 PM »
My series that I'm planning to put in a boxed set has bombed on Amazon, so I feel zero constraint about Amazon's $9.99 cap. I'm raising the prices of the individual books as I take them wide, and then the omnibus/boxed set will be $11.99 or $12.99, which will still be a discount compared to buying the titles individually. I probably will not even offer the boxed set on Amazon.

I figure I have absolutely nothing to lose except the price of putting the set together with a new cover. I want to find a different audience entirely, and a low price may be an obstacle to that audience. We'll see what happens.     

You could predict that books that haven't sold on Amazon won't sell anywhere else. That could be true, but there's only one way to find out. 
 

lyndabelle

Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2018, 06:56:25 AM »
I've been doing Omnibus editions in print for my ebook short series. When I put all three in the series, it makes a shorter book. It's easier to sell when I'm doing personal appearances. The print books average about 100 pages that way. I think there was limit with Createspace they had to be around 101 pages or something. But it all worked until the merge.

Right now I'm waiting for D2D to get their POD service up and running. I'm disappointed with the Zon and KDP right now. So, will see next year if I want to put out a print edition of a finished series that I've been planning.
 

Maggie Ann

Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2018, 07:01:58 AM »
I've been doing Omnibus editions in print for my ebook short series. When I put all three in the series, it makes a shorter book. It's easier to sell when I'm doing personal appearances. The print books average about 100 pages that way. I think there was limit with Createspace they had to be around 101 pages or something. But it all worked until the merge.

Right now I'm waiting for D2D to get their POD service up and running. I'm disappointed with the Zon and KDP right now. So, will see next year if I want to put out a print edition of a finished series that I've been planning.

I think the minimum length at CS was 23 pages. In any case, I have several print books through them under 30 pages.
           
 
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Edward M. Grant

Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2018, 09:47:34 AM »
I think the minimum length at CS was 23 pages. In any case, I have several print books through them under 30 pages.

24 pages. Or was, the last time I submitted a short story for print.
 

Crystal

Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2018, 11:19:59 AM »
I prefer doing an omnibus of the first few books, so I can get some sellthrough from the bundle. If you put the entire series in the bundle, you don't have as many profitable promo options.
 

idontknowyet

Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2018, 11:59:43 AM »
As a reader I love bundles. :heart:   :heart:  :heart:  :heart: Just bought one this morning from an author I read a long time ago. I will only buy bundles if I save a little bit of money over the singles.
 

Kyra Halland

Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #11 on: November 16, 2018, 11:08:15 AM »
I put all six books of my Daughter of the Wildings series plus two short stories connected to the series in an omnibus. It's not on Amazon (it's priced way over $9.99), but I put it on the other stores (I'm wide with all my books) and regularly submit it to Kobo's 40% off coupon box set sales. That's my big moneymaker on Kobo. Bought a new printer with what I made from it in September. (That's a big deal for me.)

Now, I wouldn't have done that except: 1 - I'm wide, so I could put it on Kobo, where buyers seem to like big box sets; 2 - the whole series had been out for a couple of years and needed a boost; 3 - I've started releasing the follow-up series and also have a decent-sized backlist for readers to dive into. If this series was all the books I had out, I wouldn't put them in a full-series omnibus.

I also have a box set of the first three books. Readers seem to like that because it's a savings over the three books separately, and I like it because sell-through to the other three books from the box set is very high. This one is on Amazon. I rarely put it on sale, and then only for $2.99, though if I ever feel like I can afford to cough up for Bookbub, it'll be my 99 cent Bookbub bait.


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Genres: Epic Romantic Fantasy; Western Fantasy
 

Timothy L. Cerepaka

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Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #12 on: November 16, 2018, 09:49:11 PM »
I still do every now and then, but very rarely. Boxed sets just don't seem to do well for me even when I promote them.
 

LilyBLily

Re: Do You Still Make Omnibus/Full Collection Books of your Series?
« Reply #13 on: November 16, 2018, 11:09:32 PM »
I've got my first box set ready to go. Question is, where do I promote it? Facebook? Bookbub? Not 99-cent deals planned.