Quote:
Originally Posted by neilmarr
Slashed cover price apart, a single bundle of titles would allow for easy cataloguing in your libraries and devices and it also allow us to cut story catch-up prologues title-by-title as a series develops and to drop the closing pages we used to carry in each title which were actually the first chapter of the pending sequel as a taster. Less bulk in the collection but flowing continuity. New bundle cover art but original cover on each book within the bundle. We'd also be able to title the bundles themselves rather than the individual novels within them. For example 'The Beldina Lawrence Mysteries -- books one to four', 'The Petronicus Legacy -- books one to three', etc, etc. N
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This really does sound more like omnibus editions, which are also good (e.g. Baen's recent omnibus editions of the Vorkosigan series).
I think that a 40% discount for the omnibus over the individual volumes sounds OK, given that the individual volumes are already reasonably priced.
I'm slightly concerned about the idea of changing the omnibus contents over time. That seems like a lot of work, and a lot of confused customers. I'd suggest that you plan on either two or three book omnibuses, and don't try anything like you describe: getting to a five-volume omnibus and then splitting into two three-volume omnibuses.
If you have a big series, it might well be worth releasing the first one as a free book, to introduce the series to new readers. This should also help to sell the omnibus editions to new readers. (They're more likely to buy the rest of a long series if they've read the first one.)
You might even be able to persuade webscriptions to add your SF/Fantasy free ebooks to the Baen Free Library, they do have some from publishers other than Baen, which would expose your books to a wider audience.