Just found this on Amazon: The Dresden Files Collection 1-6 (The Dresden Files Box-Set) Kindle Edition. A box-set creation or bundling of your titles can be done in e-books, print and even in audiobook format.
You don’t have to be a multi-book author before you can start “bundling” your book. One book needs only to be in print and digital format – and voilà! you have a bundle. At Amazon it’s called “Kindle Match Book”. Customers will also be able to buy inexpensive e-copies of books they have previously bought in hardcover or paperback.
.
The most expensive titles will be offered for $2.99; the rest will be $1.99, 99 cents or, in some cases, even free. If you sell on Amazon, they request: “the Promotional List Price options must be at least 50% lower than the regular Digital List Price for the Kindle MatchBook program, in order to be a compelling discount for readers.”
.
However, if you are not (locked) in KDP Select, you can sell your book bundles from your own website at any amount you choose – or via other online retailers who might have different requirements.
.
Imagine a reader who wants to send a book as a gift through Amazon, but at the same time wants to read your book too. What easier than to buy the bundle and read right away on any digital device including a smartphone, while the print book is on its way to the recipient.
A great opportunity, and as a smart author-publisher you have already (at least a POD) print version of your work. See the blog post we published years ago: “11 Reasons Why You Should Offer Print Books Too“.
.
Bundles and Box-Sets
Did you write a series of books? Or several individual works that are somehow fitting together in terms of location or unifying topic? Do the book covers show your “brand”? Using the same font and design style, so that readers – without looking at your name – know right away, it’s one of your books?
.
Benefits of Bundles and Box Sets
Bundling your books is a great way of creating a higher-priced product, a bulk-purchase – and at the same time offering your readers an attractive deal. A win-win situation.
Another benefit for you as the author: increased visibility – readers have at least one more way to find you with every bundle you create. For example, if you wrote four books – people have four possibilities to discover your books. If you create two bundles of two books each, suddenly readers get six ways to discover your books – without you writing anything new.
You also have an opportunity to put your bundle into different categories than your initial books.
.
And to earn more money, bundle four or five of your 99cent novellas or short stories together and reach the 70% revenue from online selling, which starts at the $2.99 threshold.
.
How to Create e-Book Bundles?
Combine your books into a single volume manuscript with a single TOC (Table of Contents) that covers all books. Important is to create a new cover for this bundle. It should clearly state that readers get a bargain of several books. Use a box-set style image or one that shows (parts) of the containing books / covers, e.g. include a 3-D image of each of the books in the set. Don’t forget to write a new, convincing blurb for the bundle. Create a unique description, rather than just repeating the descriptions of each single book. Improve your keywords for relevance or even for a total overhaul. Check out the article Best-Ranking Keywords in Amazon Categories.
.
A bundle should offer significant savings from buying your books individually to attract readers. Invite as many book reviewers as possible. And don’t forget to place “Editorial Reviews”. You can even copy reviews you received previously for your individual books and use them as Editorial Reviews for your bundle. Upload your new manuscript to Amazon (or other retailers who allow bundles), as you would do with every other e-book.
.
Promote Your Bundles
Plan a book launch event, as you did with your single books and market your new addition well on all platforms including your blog / website. Google+ and Goodreads invite authors to post their book launch event for free.
After all, it’s a brand-new product you are offering! Set up an e-book giveaway on LibraryThing or a print book giveaway on Goodreads. You can set up your bundle three months before the book launch for pre-order. If you manage to promote the pre-order well: by the time the book is released it will already have high rankings as a starting point. Which will help your book sales tremendously.
.
Bundling Books from Authors in the Same Genre
Another option is to work with other authors in your genre and compile previously published books from each author into one book bundle. A good example is A Legendary Christmas Past: 6 stories, 3 authors: Jan Scarbrough, Janet Eaves & Magdalena Scott, who sell a boxed set of Christmas stories from the 40’s, 60’s, 70’s in Legend,Tennessee, for only 99cents.
.
Audiobook Bundles: Pay What You Want.
HumbleBundle offers $215 worth of awesome audiobooks, for example “A bundle of Star Wars” audiobooks, valued at up to $215. “Name your price and increase your contribution to upgrade your bundle. Audiobook: Download these audiobooks onto your favorite device to enjoy wherever you go in MP3 format. Support charity. Choose exactly how your purchase is divided between the creators, charity, or even the Humble tip jar. Already 5,096 Bundles sold.”
.
e-Book Bundles
Porter Anderson just brought this news to readers and publishers:
“BitLit and Ingram/LightningSource have struck a new agreement allowing publishers using Ingram’s CoreSource Plus programme to offer e-book bundles to readers. Readers take photos of their books’ spines on their shelves and send them to BitLit via an app, branded as “Shelfie”. The BitLit system then reads the spines and determines which books are available to the reader, either free or for a discounted price, as set by the publisher. In this way, readers who own print copies of favoured books can obtain digital copies of them—and publishers capture new data on readers who were formerly only print customers.”
.
Have fun bundling – creating a new book without the work of writing! As an independent author, you are free to do, whatever you want and when you want.
<><><><><>
If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing:
We offer for three months all this and more for only $179 – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also
“Book Marketing on a Shoestring”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE
Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.
.