|
@darryl - Kobo has promos for boxed sets (specifically for boxed sets, as opposed to just overall promos) that I think make them more visible, but even when there are no promos I still sell more boxed sets at Kobo. One of the most likely reasons is because Amazon has their algos skewed pretty heavily towards trad publishers right now (because trad publishers are paying for placement as part of their contracts as I understand it). Amazon is not just in the business of selling--they sell advertising and placement/mentions in newsletters, etc. Their algos also require 50 reviews of a book to participate in some of the placements (things like hebought/shebought but that is also dependent on the release date because the longer a book is out, the less it might get shown anyway unless the sales are large and steady enough). I received an email several months ago letting me know that reviews, the number of reviews and the frequency of reviews (meaning we had to keep getting them, not just get a huge number all at once) would affect a book's ranking. A lower ranking means you get more placement/shows -- so the more a book is reviewed, the better the book will do (assuming good reviews.)
The boxed sets of my two best selling series came out after my most loyal readers had already read the series (this would be true of any boxed set just by the nature of the normal release cycle). That means it's difficult to get reviews because most readers leave reviews on the individual books (only makes sense). So the boxed sets are going to be pretty high in the ranking and simply not seen. The boxed sets that do well tend to be multi-author sets that sell for 1.99 or 99 cents for a while--they get a high number of buys in a short period and because they are multi-author, reviews generally do get left on those sets. Most of them also contain a "headliner" author--someone who already has very good sales.
There are just different strategies and different algos at work.
While I do think that the UK, Aus and New Zealand charge more for books in general, for me, my niche has to be to target those looking for a bit of a deal. I don't have huge name recognition. I don't care about tax issues, monopolies or other problems a government causes. I just want to sell books. If Kobo thinks .99 helps sell I'll end my prices in .99.
|