Early Results from Creating an Ebook Omnibus–Good Choice or Not?

A lot of authors who read this blog (at least two out of three of them!) are publishing, often self-publishing, their first books. That’s a noble endeavor, but what if you’ve been writing for a while, and you have several books already published? What if they’re all related (i.e. stories in a series)? Maybe it’s time to look into putting together an omnibus.

That’s what I did a couple of weeks ago, publishing The Emperor’s Edge Collection on Amazon. It includes the first three novels in my fantasy series, and I decided on $7.99 for a price tag, so it’s a good deal for readers. So far, I’ve sold 50 copies, so it’s sales are low compared to my other novels, novellas, and short stories (though it is outselling my poor children’s story collection — it’s so hard to find 10-year-old readers with Kindles and the ability to buy from Amazon!). That said, 50 sales at $7.99 (putting a little over $5 in my pocket for each book) isn’t too shabby, especially considering I didn’t write anything new for the collection, meaning I didn’t need to pay for editing. Also the cover art and formatting costs were minimal (I got deals on both since we were just re-purposing existing covers/files), and I’ve already recouped those costs.

“Ah, but wait,” you say, “aren’t you cannibalizing your own sales with an omnibus? Aren’t the people who bought those books folks who would have purchased them individually?”

This is a valid point. My first ebook is free right now, so no loss there, but I sell EE2 and EE3 for $4.95 each (although, last I checked, Amazon had price-matched one of those down to $3.99 based on some slow-to-update store out there). Essentially, instead of making $5-something on the omnibus, I could make $6+ if people bought EE2 and EE3 separately.

I have no way to know for certain, but I suspect I am losing money on this deal, at least with the omnibus priced at $7.99 (I may raise the price down the line, especially if I ever “un-free” the first book). Based on earlier sales months, I know that a high percentage of the people who buy Book 2 go on to purchase the following books.

So, why do it?

Well, it’s a way to give the readers a deal, perhaps encouraging those who are on the fence about getting into the series, and it’s still a pretty good deal for me. Also, it gets people to buy the set today rather than the books one at a time tomorrow (if your situation is different than mine, and you don’t have a high percentage of people returning for the remaining books in the series, this may be a particularly good idea for you).

When does the omnibus really shine?

As you can see, with my EE books, creating an omnibus was more of a convenience for the readers than a big earner for me. But, there are instances, especially with e-publishing, where it can be super smart to create an omnibus.

The next one I’m going to put together is a three-story collection of my Flash Gold novellas. Because those are shorter than my novels, I sell them at 99 cents (although the first is free right now), $1.79, and $2.99. The last one, which is the longest at 43,000 words, is the only one that earns the 70% royalty rate at Amazon. I earn $2 on a sale of that one, but I only earn 35 and 60 cents respectively on the first two adventures, because ebooks priced under $2.99 receive a 35% royalty rate.

When I release the novella omnibus, I’ll likely sell it at $3.99 or $4.95 (we’ll see if the first one is still free then). Again, this will be a deal for the reader, who will be getting the word-count equivalent of a full-length novel, but then I’ll be earning the 70% royalty on the whole collection of stories.

The best possible scenario is when all three of your stories (or however many you want to combine) are selling individually for less than $2.99, thus forcing you into the 35% royalty rate. Combine them to get into the 70% rate, and you’ll be making significantly more on your omnibus.

A sneakier tactic to sell more omnibus editions?

As I mentioned, I didn’t write anything new for my omnibus. I didn’t want readers who had already purchased the books individually to feel compelled to buy the collection as well to get new material.

However, that is precisely the strategy many publishers pursue, no doubt to great effect. I know I’ve purchased omnibus editions of books by favorite authors because of new essays or stories tucked into the collection. If you don’t want to worry about an omnibus cannibalizing your other book sales, this may be a tactic to try, as you might get people who already purchased the books individually coming to grab the collection. Granted, you’d need a fan base built up, one that’s into your world/characters to the extent that they’d pay to get their hands on extras, even if it meant double-purchasing some stories.

It’s up to you to decide if that’s something you want to try.

Is a multistory edition good for anthologies and non-series collections too?

What if you don’t have the first three books in a series, but you have a collection of short stories that you’re selling at 99 cents a piece? Can you still take advantage of the higher royalty rate by combining them into one ebook anthology or collection?

The answer, of course, is yes, though you may have mixed results when it comes to sales. With a series, it’s more of an obvious buy for folks who like the sample and see that reviews are good for the rest of the books. With short story collections, the more unrelated they are, the less they’re likely to appeal as a collection.

You can always give it a try, though, and see how it goes. If you format your own ebooks and can splice together existing covers to make a new one, you needn’t pay anybody anything to put together works that have already been edited. Even if you only end up selling 10 or 20 copies a month at $2.99+, that might end up earning you more than selling individual tales for 99 cents.

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So, readers and authors, what are your thoughts on the ebook anthology/omnibus? A good deal for all or do you prefer working with individual titles?

 

Related Posts:

The Ebook Omnibus: A Win for You and Your Readers
Serial Books Selling Like Hotcakes for Indie Author Brondt Kamffer
How to Improve Your Ebook Sales at Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and iTunes