One of the joys of self-publishing is the freedom to re-use published works to create a brand new product and attract a new readership. 
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been re-using my three short story collections to produce a ‘box set’ containing a total of 36 short stories. Most people are familiar with DVD box sets. A book box set is similar – it is two or more books, previously sold separately, combined together and sold as a bumper, single ebook and/or paperback. This single volume generally offers the reader great value for money when compared to the individual selling prices of each standalone book.
In this blog post I’m going to talk about why creating a box set is a good idea. In my next post I’ll talk about procuring a box set book cover and in the third post in this series I’ll talk about using the new KDP paperback facility to create a print copy.
Why Create a Box Set?
- To maximise revenue from individual books by repackaging them as a new product.
- Binge consumption has become the norm with viewers lapping up complete series of TV shows in one sitting on Netflix and similar providers. Book consumption is heading the same way and therefore it makes sense to offer readers what they want.
- Box sets offer good value to the customer (the box set price offers a good discount on the individual book prices) and may therefore sell in higher numbers.
- Maximise revenue per customer. The sale of a box set brings in money ‘up front’ without relying on a customer returning to buy each individual book.
- If the individual books in the set are relatively slim, as with many short story collections, bringing several together in a box set makes the production of a paperback version worthwhile. I’d had several requests for paperback versions of my short stories but felt I needed more content in order to make a paperback value for money for the reader.
- On a more personal note, I’m trying to get away from an over-dependence on Amazon and had read that box sets sell well on the Kobo ereader.
The super-successful indie publisher Joanna Penn offers more detail on why box sets are a good idea on her blog, The Creative Penn.
A Coffee Break Story Collection is available on Amazon and Kobo and is half the price of buying the three individual story collections.
Sally Jenkins 