A Question of Collections
Hey so, I was just kind of sitting there, and it hit me just now that I could, with ease, put together a collection of Parasexual 1 -3 for 9.99$.
Anyone who has followed me since before 2018 knows that Collections used to be half my fucking business model. To be honest, I didn’t super like doing them, because I was always riding what felt like a razor’s edge.
I wanted to write exclusive material for all the collections, because on the one hand, I wanted to make it worth purchasing, instead of just a generic repackaging, (which I have ended up breaking down and doing for Crystal Candy), but I didn’t want to make it too interesting, because then people who don’t want to or can’t afford to purchase the packs would feel like they’re missing out.
I looked at it as kind of DLC, which itself rides this line. You should be able to play the game without ever touching the DLC and enjoy it as a whole, but if you decide to buy the DLC, it should be worth buying and enrich your experience.
I think I got kinda good at it, but it WAS a bit of a pain.
So now I’m wondering if I should go ahead and keep doing it for future titles. And maybe even as a way to collect previous titles, (maybe like have a My Undead Lover/Exploration combo pack with bonus content or something?)
I don’t really know, because I also ride the line between trying to provide a fair service, and trying to make money. It gets hard to determine where that line is drawn, for obvious reasons.
Does anyone have any opinions? Because I have to admit, there is a part of me that is actually really into the idea of writing bonus content.
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Shieldanvil wrote: "I tend to buy all your books as they come out because I don't want to wait to read them. I've bought them as a collection when I was catching up with a series or when I was still using KU for your ..."First of all, thank you for commenting, and double thanks for purchasing the books! That's really appreciated and awesome!
Second, that's actually a really good idea! I've toyed around with the notion of packs of short stories here and there over my career, and tried it once a few years back, which is where almost all of the free shorts that are only on my website came from.
But that's a good idea. I might just re-release those in big bundled packs, with the shorts that are exclusive to the Complete Trilogy or the Complete Series versions, as well as brand-new content, because I do sometimes really want to revisit characters. Plus, it would be closer to real-life DLC.
If adding additional content helps make more money, then it's something you should consider. I'd just weigh the amount of additional work you're doing vs the amount of additional money you're getting to make sure you are actually earning enough extra to make it worthwhile for yourself and not just bonus content for the reader. If they can't afford to buy the collection, they can still buy them one at a time, as they can afford them.
If the answer to all that is “Yes, it's worth it” then you may consider publishing a collection of your additional scenes as short stories for those that already own the books and don't/can't buy the collections as well. That gives the reader new content so it's a good value still at $2.99/$3.99/$4.99, whatever you set it at. And it allows for an additional financial benefit from work you basically did for free in the collections. To build off your DLC analogy you can publish a Game of the Year edition that includes all the DLC content.