Boxed set marketing

[alhawke]

I'm releasing a trilogy boxed set soon. I promote these differently than regular launches. For instance, I don't copyright it or submit it to the library of congress (the three books are already copyrighted and submitted), I don't reduce price at launch, and I don't run promos. I do create an ISBN and I've run ARCs before.

So... for those of you who've marketed boxed sets (I know some of you don't), do you do anything different to promote them at launch? Or do you do your same launch stuff as you do for your regular books?

The thing that actually spurred this post was preorders. Should I bother with a preorder when the books are already individually available? Logic told me no last time, but that was assuming that readers know the whole collection. Now I wonder about that and if it matters. The boxed set will be $9.99. The three books will run $17, so money-wise waiting for launch might be worth it to some readers. Extra preorder sales would always be nice too? ??

[idontknowyet]

I don't do much. Which is probably an error on my part. But since i usually have more than 1 boxed set per series i will wait until they are all out and advertise them then. Usually with fb ads and random 5 day free stacked promos. The nice thing about that is the tail on the promo read through is massively long like 3 months or more.

[alhawke]

Yes, I find promos can be more successful after a sale deal with a boxed set. And sales is worth the royalty. I don't know about launch. I think I'm going to launch without much hoopla.

[writeway]

I'm releasing a trilogy boxed set soon. I promote these differently than regular launches. For instance, I don't copyright it or submit it to the library of congress (the three books are already copyrighted and submitted), I don't reduce price at launch, and I don't run promos. I do create an ISBN and I've run ARCs before.

So... for those of you who've marketed boxed sets (I know some of you don't), do you do anything different to promote them at launch? Or do you do your same launch stuff as you do for your regular books?

The thing that actually spurred this post was preorders. Should I bother with a preorder when the books are already individually available? Logic told me no last time, but that was assuming that readers know the whole collection. Now I wonder about that and if it matters. The boxed set will be $9.99. The three books will run $17, so money-wise waiting for launch might be worth it to some readers. Extra preorder sales would always be nice too? ??

Here is my take. I never promote my box sets right at launch. No, I just put them up until I am ready to promote. When I am ready to promote, it depends on certain things. I have some boxes in KU and some wide. So the marketing will be different.

Honestly, I haven't marketed a wide set in a while unless it was one of my permafree sets. It's just too hard to move wide books if you don't do ads because promo sites don't work well for wide anymore. Bookbub is also hit and miss these days. I used to drop the price to 99 cent for a wide set and try to get a Bookbub. I ended up getting some BBs for a few sets a few years back. When I would promote wide sets, I was more concerned with volume. That's why I priced them low temporarily. I wanted to catch as many readers as I could because making a 3 or 4-book box set 99 cents is a GREAT bargain that many readers will flock to. But as I said, it's hard selling wide if you don't do ads, etc. I don't.

Now for KU box sets. It is extremely easy to promote a KU set and get traction. I drop them to 99 cents and book them on as many promo sites as I can for about a month. That's how long I do the sale. Since the books are in KU, page reads is what I target. I'm not concerned with royalties from sales. In KU, page reads will be the majority of your income. So my goal is getting page reads so I do what I can to get them. Sometimes I will do a free run of a KU box set. Yep, and then book the free set on as many sites as possible and watch the page reads rake in. I don't do the freebie set thing all the time but they can do well if you promote.

I don't promote my sets at all when they are regular price. They are too high and it's hard to promote books once you get to 9.99 and up. I also find that box sets bring in the most money on sale.

Oh, and I put everything on preorder so I definitely put sets on preorder.

[alhawke]

Oh, and I put everything on preorder so I definitely put sets on preorder.

Preorder drops some stress from the launch and might garner some extra money. I'll probably just do that. Thanks!

[notthatamanda]

Now for KU box sets. It is extremely easy to promote a KU set and get traction. I drop them to 99 cents and book them on as many promo sites as I can for about a month. That's how long I do the sale. Since the books are in KU, page reads is what I target. I'm not concerned with royalties from sales. In KU, page reads will be the majority of your income. So my goal is getting page reads so I do what I can to get them. Sometimes I will do a free run of a KU box set. Yep, and then book the free set on as many sites as possible and watch the page reads rake in. I don't do the freebie set thing all the time but they can do well if you promote.

I'm surprised you get a lot of KU reads from the box set free promotions. When I was in KU and I would promote the first book free I would always get one or two who would be nice enough to read book 1 in KU, everyone else just grabbed the book for free and I only got books 2 and 3 read in KU. Glad it is working for you though.

[LilyBLily]

I'm getting a lot of page reads for that box set I had free in a Kindle countdown. Those are in addition to over 4,700 free downloads. It may be that some people would rather read via their KU membership than buy a book--even a free book--from an unknown author. As a reader, I sometimes opt to do that, figuring I'm giving the author a few cents that way and still helping to build her ranking/visibility.

I'm also getting significant page reads for all the other books in the series. And some sales. For once, a strategy others have employed successfully is working for me.   

[Rod Little]

When you launch a box set, how do you deal with the fact that it has 0 reviews and doesn't point to the individual books with 100s of reviews?  You're starting over with a packaged set. Can you even get a good promo service on 0? Or do they take the single books' reviews into account? I find it hard to believe customers have the insight to look up reviews on the single books (we live in a 1-click society now) since Zon doesn't point to them.

[LilyBLily]

When you launch a box set, how do you deal with the fact that it has 0 reviews and doesn't point to the individual books with 100s of reviews?  You're starting over with a packaged set. Can you even get a good promo service on 0? Or do they take the single books' reviews into account? I find it hard to believe customers have the insight to look up reviews on the single books (we live in a 1-click society now) since Zon doesn't point to them.

I don't think people expect a lot of reviews on a box set. I myself have tracked down some individual books in a set because even if the thing is free I don't want it cluttering up my Kindle if it's dreck--but I suspect I am unusually cautious. I think most people look at the genre/blurb/Look Inside and the price and decide yes or no. The big decision is whether to spend 99 cents on it or pass it by and find something that's free. If it's in KU, there's no price barrier.

I had no reviews to start with on my box set, but now it has over 50 ratings and three positive reviews. There are a couple of good newsletters that will take your money to advertise your free or super discounted box set. They work, if your genre/blurb, etc. are on target. 

[alhawke]

When you launch a box set, how do you deal with the fact that it has 0 reviews and doesn't point to the individual books with 100s of reviews? 

Book review services like Booksprout will take boxed sets, reviewing it "new" like an ARC. It's very common to see. I was surprised at how many reviews I got for my witch series this way. But, recently (for the series tied to this thread), a couple reviewers didn't review the boxed set. They reviewed each individual book instead. This was great, but it wasn't what I was looking for. I was hoping for over 4 reviews for the set for any future plans of a discount promo on the boxed set.

Can you even get a good promo service on 0?

Some will. Many promo sites won't demand four reviews anymore. Robin Reads and Fussy, for example, dropped their four review rule. But I still wouldn't submit my book without it. Especially a BookBub. I've had BookBub accept a new book, interestingly with only four reviews, so you never know. But for a boxed set, and for me to be willing to drop price on this many books, I'd want it to not only be accepted but to sell big. Similarly, I'll never sell a boxed set free. I can't stomach that. I get free and 99c is pretty psychological, but I just can't get myself to sell volumes of my work for literally nothing.

[TimothyEllis]

When you launch a box set, how do you deal with the fact that it has 0 reviews and doesn't point to the individual books with 100s of reviews?  You're starting over with a packaged set. Can you even get a good promo service on 0? Or do they take the single books' reviews into account? I find it hard to believe customers have the insight to look up reviews on the single books (we live in a 1-click society now) since Zon doesn't point to them.

Why not add the box set on the end of the series page?

That will add the series slider to the product page for the box set, and all the review totals for the first books will be visible.

[alhawke]

Why not add the box set on the end of the series page?

That will add the series slider to the product page for the box set, and all the review totals for the first books will be visible.

That's an interesting idea. I'm not sure I've seen that done. The problem would be if you choose to # the books. I'd think you wouldn't want the boxed set to be numbered #4; but there is a series mode on Amazon where you don't have to number the books. I've been considering that option.

[TimothyEllis]

Why not add the box set on the end of the series page?

That will add the series slider to the product page for the box set, and all the review totals for the first books will be visible.

That's an interesting idea. I'm not sure I've seen that done. The problem would be if you choose to # the books. I'd think you wouldn't want the boxed set to be numbered #4; but there is a series mode on Amazon where you don't have to number the books. I've been considering that option.

When they first brought out the facility, adding other books to the series resulted in nothing being shown on the series page. It might be different now.

Worth trying anyway.

[alhawke]

There's "related content" under the Amazon series mode. I never saw that until I was working my dashboard today. I added my prequel to my witch series. I'm not sure if it will now be listed as a preorder or it's only going to be easier to grab with searches?? But it applies a lot to this thread because there's also a place where you can click "boxed set". I haven't done this yet, again, not sure what "related" even means for titling, but I will be experimenting. I hope it doesn't mean I lost a ton of potential sales over the past year not seeing this.

[TimothyEllis]

Let us know how both worked.

I've not seen the box set option, and back when this came out, related content didn't show up anywhere.

So when you find out what does happen, let us know.

[alhawke]

Okay, here's how it's looking for my prequel. You can link prequels to the series as "related". If you do that, and you do the series by numbering, the prequel will show the series, but will be without a number. Then on the series page it will list "prequel". Interestingly, when someone bought the series today, they bought my prequel. They hadn't been doing that much before, so it appears this is worth doing.

Linking the boxed sets wouldn't work well for me. My series name is "The Hawthorne University Witch Series". The boxed set is titled "The Hawthorne University Witch Series". So it would read "The Hawthorne University Witch Series (The Hawthorne University Witch Series)". This would be silly. So if any of you link your boxed set as "related", title it something completely different than the series.

Another thing I had to do was change the name for the boxed set. It used to read "Complete". Well, my boxed set isn't complete now because it doesn't include the prequel. Nor does it include my novelette prequel. I was able to delete the word for the ebook, not the print book. It turns out that on Amazon, you can't change a print book title--at least that's what customer support told me. Hopefully, readers who but the print book won't mind because they are purchasing a large omnibus. I don't know what else I can do (and it's already a huge paperback as is with 3 novels).

[Bill Hiatt]

My prequel has gotten more sales since I listed it as related on the series page than it did before. Yesterday, I linked two related short stories that weren't doing anything anymore to the series page. We will see what that accomplishes.

As far as box sets are concerned, it's true that the product page doesn't show reviews from the individual books. However, the series page shows all the individual books, complete with descriptions and reviews. So at least a reader who was aware of series pages would be able to look without having to visit each individual product page.

I have gotten far more complete series or almost complete series purchases (presumably from people who read the first book or two and then got the rest of the series) since Amazon redesigned the series pages. However, the related material, though displayed on the page, doesn't provide any easy way to purchase it with the series. I'd like to see that in the future.

There is an option to put a box set among the related materials. It seems as if it would be better listed with the main series if Amazon allowed that. (The fact that it's listed among related material options suggests Amazon isn't visualizing it as an integral part of the series.) It seems as if enabling the box set to be listed in some more conspicuous way and be purchasable from the series page would be particularly desirable.

[alhawke]

My prequel has gotten more sales since I listed it as related on the series page than it did before. Yesterday, I linked two related short stories that weren't doing anything anymore to the series page. We will see what that accomplishes.ld be particularly desirable.

I also can report that I am seeing a spike in sales of books not previously purchased by linking it to series! BTW, in addition, I put graphics from series books in my A+ content as well to further link them. I think the series function helps. Good luck with your related short stories!