Boxed Sets, Anthologies and Collections

Is the “boxed set” marketing's new black?

The collections are everywhere. Some center on a holiday, a theme, the hero/heroine's profession. Others are linked more loosely. But they fill the Top 100 ranks of more than one genre category.

Some people decry them as yet another devaluation of the author’s material. This same argument, of course, was applied to the free book and is now targeted at the 99-cent price point. There is a valid point, that people who expect “free” aren't going to buy subsequent books, but over the past year, as the algorithms at Amazon moved away from counting free downloads and the “free days” offered less bounce, fewer people gave away books. And readers moved to the “new” darling, the 99-cent book.

Now the hot marketing device seems to be a collection of novels/novellas. While bundled products, buy-one-get-one-free, and other promotions have been around for ages, the collections are everywhere. The driving force, of course, is to obtain new readers. If author X has a story in the set, the reader may also sample (and read! And Love!) author Z, whose book is next in the collection.

Forgive me if this post rambles a bit. It's very late and I'd planned a different post for today.

Let me tell you the story of two anthologies.

The first, The Ultimate Mystery, Thriller, Horror Boxed Set, was released in early November 2013 by a group of independent authors. The stated goal of the group was gaining new readers, building on each other's networks. The group planned its release strategy, chose advertising, and actively promoted the collection's release. We communicated clearly with each other, shared results of each campaign. The set sold well and has remained #1 or #2 (yay! It's number 1 at Amazon this morning!) for nearly three months.

Then there is the set I planned today's post around. 

Love International Style was supposed to release on Monday. Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc had the box set for presale – with the wrong cover – but Amazon didn't offer it until Monday morning, when apparently it was available for a couple of minutes. It was subsequently removed from sale, with no explanation. The authors who had banded together with other authors in the imprint and worked out a sales campaign were left standing with our mouths open when the book wasn't available on its stated date. All of this occurred with a deafening silence from the publisher. Emails received only a terse, "we're working on it." 

When the set still was unavailable this morning, with a heavy heart, I revised my planned post.

I won't bore you with all the other details, but communication appears to be a key element in the different results for the two anthologies. I hope we (the authors and the publisher) learn both what happened and how to keep a similar snafu from impeding another release.

A multi-part question for you – 

What's your opinion on boxed sets? Devaluing product? Gaining readers? 

Have you ever run into a situation where clear communication could've averted a mess?

Driven to Distraction

by Janis Patterson

For my birthday last year The Husband gave me a wonderful new car. It has special lights, all kinds of gizmos and enough electronics to run a small city. I love it. I absolutely love it.

As a writer, I hate it, and all like it.

You see, my new chariot isn’t all that unusual. There were a lot more goodies we could have added but didn’t, but even the few we got are enough to make modern cars marvels for their owners – and hell for a mystery writer.

Who hasn’t read (or written) a mystery where the hero or heroine is in a car trying to get away from the bad guys, so they turn into a convenient driveway or forest or whatever, put on the parking brake, turn off the lights and lie down across the seat to make the car appear invisible or at least parked – but of course keeping the engine running for a fast getaway. Once the bad guys speed past, our hero backs out, and speeds in the opposite direction – usually without turning on the lights until they’re way off the bad guys’ radar.

Just try that in a modern car. Lights go on when you just unlock it or open the door. More lights go on when you start the engine. There is no way to just stop the car, engine running, without the thing being lit up like a Christmas tree. Even after the engine is turned off there are still lights, usually on a timer probably so the driver can reach his front door safely – all of which is great for a real life driver, but a trial for a mystery writer.

Worse, even if you can get around the light problem in one way or another, there are the various forms of electronic assistance programs, which are really little more than trackers. In real life they can be wonderful, as in the case of a young friend of mine who recently had a nasty car accident. Before her car had stopped spinning the assistance program was activated, with a voice asking if she needed the police or an ambulance. For her – and all real people – I delight in such life-preserving technology.

As a writer… not so much. How can I have my victim stuck in the bottom of a ravine so long that it can’t be ascertained whether his demise was the result of accident or murder? Or however I want to kill him? I can’t always have my characters driving old cars without all the electronic bells and whistles, and I don’t always want to write in an era before this.

I’m sure technology has always been a trial for writers. Probably some poor writer bemoaned the loss of the buggy whip and the (relatively) speedy pace of the Model T, to say nothing of the instant communication of the hand-crank telephone. Nothing changes, really – just the props. No matter how we try to adapt, how we twist our stories, there’s always a bigger, badder bit of technology just waiting to challenge us. But as writers we will win. We can always out-think a machine.

At least, I hope so.

Just don’t get me started on cell phones!