Top 10 Box Set Promotion Sites – Success Guide for Authors & Publishers (WriteZero)

This is part of the WriteZero Top 10 Book Promotion Sites Guide for Authors & Publishers

This Top 10 List covers the best book promotion sites for promoting Box Sets

Please also see the Genre Specific Lists at the Top 10 Book Promotion Sites Guide post to see which book promotion sites are also good for your specific book genre. You basically want book promotion sites which are good for BOTH

Promoting Your Box Set’s Genre
Promoting Box Sets

Now, let’s get started

The Top 10 – The 10 Best Box Set Book Promotion Sites

Bookbub
1. Main Pros: Exceptionally good results for box sets, the largest box set book promotion site, has genre specific lists, reaches 10 to 15 million readers, necessary when making a bestseller push
2. Main Cons: Does not take multi author box sets (which is a strange decision), only accepts 10% to 20% of books that are submitted (the acceptance rate for box sets is not mentioned)
eReader News Today
1. Main Pros: Good results for box sets, one of the top 5 box set book promotion sites in both size and results, very reasonably priced
2. Main Cons: Not really any cons
Books Butterfly
1. Main Pro: Very good results for box sets, the second largest box set book promotion site with 4 million readers, has genre specific email lists and apps and blogs, takes multi author box sets, very good for making a bestseller push
2. Main Con: Has multiple books per category each day and your box set must be polished to do well (90% of books do well to very well, the least polished 10% don’t do well)
3. Disclosure: Books Butterfly is our Sister Company which has successfully run $1.8 million of book promotion packages
Robin Reads
1. Main Pros: Very good for box set promotions, very selective so if you get in the readers know your box set if very high quality, gets good results, reasonably priced
2. Main Cons: accepts less than 10% of books so hard to get in, no other cons
Book Sends
1. Main Pro: Large and trusted site, gets good results for Box Sets, has genre specific lists
2. Main Con: not really any cons
Fussy Librarian
1. Main Pro: Decent to good results, has genre specific lists, very reasonably priced
2. Main Con: Not as big as the earlier sites on this list
Bargain Booksy & FreeBooksy
1. Main Pro: Bargain Booksy is Top 15 in promoting paid box sets, FreeBooksy is Top 5 in promoting free box sets, trusted sites, quite large in size
2. Main Con: not really any specific cons. Free Booksy is Top 5 in results for free books. Bargain Booksy is only Top 15 in results for paid books. Together they are a Top 10 site and worth considering for your box set book promotion
FKBT – Free Kindle Books & Tips
1. Main Pro: Large book promotion site that reaches a lot of readers across a variety of channels, gets good results
2. Main Con: Not as large as the larger book promotion sites
OHFB – One Hundred Free Books
1. Main Pro: Good book promotion site that is selective and gets decent to good results for most box sets
2. Main Con: Perhaps a bit too selective (they don’t share acceptance rate and authors says it’s hard to get in)
Buck Books
1. Main Pro: Innovative book promotion site that specializes in Non Fiction and also runs Fiction Box Sets
2. Main Con: Not really any cons

Please Note: To the best of our understanding all box set book promotion sites except Bookbub take multi author box sets. We will update this if and when we get new information

Please Note that there are actually three clear Tiers in the Top 10

Super Star Tier – Bookbub
1. You get them and in theory you don’t need anything else
2. In practice you can and should use a few of the remaining Top 10 Box Set Book Promotion Sites to further improve your results
Star Tier – eReader News Today, Books Butterfly, Robin Reads
1. These go very well with Bookbub
2. As Bookbub accepts only 10% to 20% of books, you would most likely need to use a combination of these 3 if Bookbub doesn’t take you
  1. If you don’t get Bookbub, then it is very important to get as many of these three as you can
3. These three are very big sites and if you can get all three it is an investment worth making
A Tier – the rest of the Top 10 Box Set Promotion Sites

There is a very big gap from #1 Bookbub to #2 eReaderNewsToday, and there is a significant gap between #4/#5 Robin Reads and BookSends to #6 and below

Buck Books is Top 5 for Non Fiction Box Sets and #10 for Fiction Box sets. We’ve put it at #10 solely because mostly Fiction authors do box sets

Honorable Mentions – Box Set Book Promotion Sites that just missed the Top 10

To Be Updated: This section will be updated later. These sites are all good sites and well worth exploring and researching

Kindle Nation Daily
1. Main Pro:
2. Main Con:
eReader IQ & Book Bassett
1. Main Pro:
2. Main Con:
Many Books
1. Main Pro:
2. Main Con:
To Be Updated
1. Main Pro:
2. Main Con:
To Be Updated
1. Main Pro:
2. Main Con:
To Be Updated
1. Main Pro:
2. Main Con:
To Be Updated
1. Main Pro:
2. Main Con:

The Box Set Effect – What it is and The Underlying Principle

The Box Set Effect is the fact that Box Sets sell much faster than single books, sell faster than single books (making them great to try for Bestseller Lists), and make more money than the single books would separately

Box Sets are poetry in motion. Box Sets are undistilled magic

We put this section early on because to get the Box Set Effect (sell much faster and much more than standalone single books) you must actually have a Box Set and it must be heavily discounted

Everything revolves around making your Box Set INCREDIBLE and IMPOSSIBLE TO RESIST in terms of Perceived Value for Money

The Man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a Dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to Succeed

– Henry Ford

When you provide very high value for money at a very low price, you get The Box Set Effect – incredible sales, very fast sales

Who wouldn’t want three entire books for just $1?

Of Course, to get the Box Set Effect, you must have an ACTUAL Box Set

What is a Box Set? Criteria for a Box Set to Trigger THE BOX SET EFFECT

A Box Set must be a collection of 3 or more Full Length books
1. You will see Romance box sets with 3 to 10 books. That is ideal – the more the better
2. At the minimum you should have 3 full length books
Total length of the Box Set must be 500 pages or more
1. Less than 500 pages and you will miss out on the Box Set Effect
The Book Cover of the Box Set must show an ACTUAL BOX SET of Books
1. Readers are not Sherlock Holmes
2. They can’t figure out – This Author is giving 3 books in a Box Set for $0.99
  1. But for some reason the author is making it a mystery
3. Please just get a Book Cover that shows a Box Set of Books
  1. If you don’t you are losing 50% to 80% of book sales
The Box Set must be priced at $0.99
1. Under no conditions should the Box Set be priced over $2.99
2. However, please do remember that $0.99 is the magic price point
The individual books must be very good books
1. You want readers to feel they are getting three or more books that are worth $5 to $10 each
2. Just for $0.99
3. The individual books should be at least good enough to be worth $3 to $5 each

If you follow these rules, then you will get the Box Set Effect. Provided your promote your Box Set well, you should see

Tens of thousands of sales
Hit the Bestseller Lists in various categories
1. If you invest a lot of marketing you can even hit the New York Times Bestsellers List and/or the USA Today Bestsellers List
A good chance of hitting the Top 100 or Top 1000 in the Amazon Kindle book store
Make good money from the box set itself even at the low price of $0.99 for the box set
1. You should be able to make $3,000 to $10,000 from the box set
Make good money from sales of your other books
1. All those readers buying the Box Set – some will read the Box Set and then go on to buy your other books
2. You should be able to to get a significant increase in sales of your other books
  1. PROVIDED the books included in the Box Set are of high quality
3. Important: Much like most other benefits of Box Sets, this only unlocks properly if you have FULL LENGTH books in the box set
Continued sales at a good pace for however long you keep the Box Set on the market
Very fast sales
1. People get tens of thousands of sales within a few days to a few weeks
2. There are some people that hit 100,000 sales from a Box Set

We will keep repeating this like a broken record – You can only unlock the Magic of Box Sets if you give readers IMMENSE Value and include full length books, and at least 3 full length books

Multi Author Box sets are Even More Powerful

Multi Author Box Sets are even more powerful than single author Box Sets

Multi Author Box Sets do significantly better than single author box sets because
1. Marketing Costs and Production Costs can be shared
2. Each author’s reader base can be tapped into
3. It’s easy to create larger Box Sets and those sell even faster than 3 book Box Sets
Yes, the earnings are shared
1. However, it is not uncommon for each author to walk away with $3,000 to $10,000 in earnings (after expenses)
2. That’s from authors ‘Boxing’ together books which might not even be selling anymore
The follow on sales can sometimes be very significant

To get an idea of how insanely powerful Multi Author Box sets are, many book stores are actively discouraging them because they sell too well and take up too much of the market

If the marketplace is trying to prevent a product because it sells too well, you know that is a product you should seriously consider creating and selling

Why do authors meddle with Box Sets and mess up the Box Set Effect?

We really have no idea

You tell a person – Put 3 full length books together, price them at $0.99, promote them well. You’ll make $10,000 net from the Box Set. You will make another $10,000 from follow on sales

That person tells you – Yes, but can’t I make more money by selling 100 copies of my box set at $7.99?

Nothing you can say to that person to change their mind. C’est la vie

For some reason we do not understand, authors will try every single thing EXCEPT the Box Set strategy that is PROVEN and which makes people $10,000 to $30,000 from a Box Set (or more)

Authors will self-sabotage their Box Sets in a multitude of ways –

Instead of Full Length Books, they will put short stories
1. When people are getting 3 novels they value at $3 each ($9 of value) for just $1 – it is too compelling to resist
2. When they are getting 3 short stories they value at 3 cents each (9 cents of value) for $2.99 – it is impossible to purchase
3. You cannot put together three nature documentaries and expect to sell tickets like it’s The Avengers
4. The harsh truth which Authors refuse to acknowledge is that short stories have close to zero appeal compared to full length books
5. Putting a bunch of short stories together doesn’t suddenly make them Hedy Lamarr
Instead of a ‘don’t have to think about it’ price such as $0.99, they will use a ‘think ten times about it’ price such as $7.99
1. 3 full length books for $1 – A Must Get
2. 3 full length books for $7.99 – Doesn’t even stir a weak flame of desire in the heart of readers
3. The ENTIRE point is to have it at a Must Get price. Is $7.99 a must get price for an author they have never heard of? No, it isn’t
4. It only works properly if the Box Set is at $0.99
  1. The Box Set Effect requires heavily discounted pricing
5. At $2.99 you will break even
  1. However, why are you leaving $10,000 on the table?
  2. Pricing your Box Set at $0.99 for a week will not hurt you. It most probably will make you thousands of dollars
  3. Let go of your attachment to $7.99 and $2.99 and go with the strategy that is PROVEN to work
Instead of their best books, they will put their worst books
1. You are going to introduce tens of thousands of readers to your work
2. Include your worst books and you turn them off
3. If you include some of your best books, they will buy all your other books
Instead of thinking big, they will think small
1. A box set marketed well can make you a New York Times Bestselling Author or a USA Today Bestselling Author
  1. There are literally thousands of authors who’ve used Box Sets to do this
2. Think BIG
Instead of Positive Thinking and Giving Value, authors fall into the trap of ‘what if too many readers buy my book? how much money am I losing?’
1. Authors fall into negative thinking – Every time I sell my Box set for $0.99, that reader might have bought the three books separately for $30 ($10 each) and I’m leaving $29 on the table
  1. No, they would not have
  2. They don’t even know you exist
  3. You really think that instead of Stephen King and Nora Roberts and Dean Koontz they would buy your $10 book?
    1. Stephen King vs a completely unknown author is NEVER going to be a win for the unknown author
    2. First, you need them to find out that your work is very good
    3. For that you need to provide something they cannot resist
      1. A Box Set is exactly that
2. Unless you are a big name author selling tens of thousands of books at $10 to $20, you are never going to have thousands of readers buying your books at $10 each
3. However, if you entice them into buying your Box Set for $0.99, suddenly you have thousands of readers who know you can write well
  1. Perhaps even tens of thousands of readers
4. You can sell your remaining books for higher prices
  1. Please do a gradual ramp up and go to $2.99 and then slightly higher
  2. Don’t try to shift people from your $0.99 box set to a $9 single book

A Box Set is meant to be SO MUCH VALUE that a Reader CANNOT REFUSE TO PURCHASE IT

That is The Box Set Effect

Detailed Insights on the Top 10 Box Set Book Promotion Sites

To be updated

Here, at a later point in time, we will provide detailed insights and guides on each of the Top 10 Box Set Book Promotion Sites

The Book Promotion Sites must be Good at BOTH Your Book Genre and at Promoting Box Sets

When promoting a Box Set, you need to be more careful than normal. You need book promotion sites that are

Very good at promoting books in your book genre
1. Make sure they have a dedicated email list or blog or website for your book’s genre
Very good at promoting Box Sets
1. Some book promotion sites don’t accept Box Sets
2. A few accept Box Sets but don’t accept multi author box sets
3. Make sure to do your due diligence and confirm that
  1. They promote Box Sets
  2. They get good results for Box Sets

Guide to Increasing Your Chances of Getting Accepted at the Top Box Set Book Promotion Sites

Firstly, there are certain requirements around box sets

The Box Set must be an actual box set of 3 or more full length books
1. Most Box Set promotion sites will not take Box Sets made up of short stories
2. They also will not take Box Sets that are one book broken into three parts, and then the three parts joined together and classified as a Box Set
3. Most Box Set promotion sites will not consider a Serial combined into one package as a Box set
A few book promotion sites do not accept Multi Author Box Sets
1. Bookbub does not accept Multi Author Box Sets
2. Books Butterfly does accept Multi Author Box Sets
3. Luckily, most of the Top 10 Box Set promotion sites accept multi author box sets
The cover of the Box Set is critically important
1. Most box set book promotion sites will not accept a Box set that does not have an actual box set on the cover

Secondly, are the general requirements to accept books

Professionally Designed Book Cover
1. Must be high quality and attractive
2. Must match genre conventions
Professionally edited book
Good proofreading with no mistakes or typographical errors
1. Some sites might be OK with a few mistakes in every chapter
2. In general you want to get as close to zero mistakes as possible
Well written and with a good command of English
Review Rating over 4 stars
Reviews
1. If there are no reviews, then most box set book promotion sites will check the individual books
  1. If applicable, they will also check reviews for your other books
2. If there are no reviews, then quality of writing and editing becomes critical, as does the quality of the book cover
Quality of writers in the Box Set
1. For Multi Author Box Sets, having a repeat customer of that book promotion site will increase your chances of approval
2. For Multi Author Box Sets, having one or more big name authors or bestselling authors (New York Times, USA Today) will greatly increase your chances of approval
The Box Set must be Discounted
1. Ideal is $0.99
2. Most Box set book promotion sites will also accept $1.99 and $2.99 Box Sets
3. A few sites will accept Box sets over $4
The Box Set must meet the specific book promotion site’s acceptance criteria
1. Please look at the individual book promotion site’s Requirements

Please try and meet as many of these requirements as possible

Box Set Promotion – Biggest Mistakes to Avoid

We actually covered some of these in the ‘What is a Box Set?’ section. However, for the sake of completeness we will include every Big Mistake in this list

The biggest mistake is not providing an Immense Amount of Value
1. There should be 3 or more books in your Box set
2. The books should be full length
3. They should be among your best books
The second biggest mistake is not providing this Immense Value at a Great Price
1. The price should ideally be $0.99
  1. Overwhelm readers with the high amount of value and the low price so that purchasing the box set becomes a no brainer
2. $1.99 and $2.99 are fine
  1. However, there is no great reason to go with those price points when $0.99 will sell a lot more
  2. You need $0.99 to Trigger The Box Set Effect
  3. You definitely need $0.99 if you are going for a bestseller list
Do not miss the opportunity to Become a Bestselling Author
1. Launching a Box Set is the absolute time to aim for becoming a bestseller author
2. If you have a very large budget, or it is a multi author box set, you should definitely try for all three of
  1. New York Times Bestsellers List
  2. USA Today Bestsellers List
  3. Amazon Kindle Store Top 100
3. If you have a medium to large budget, you should go for
  1. Amazon Kindle Store Top 100
  2. Amazon Kindle Store Top 1,000
  3. Amazon Kindle Store Top 10/Top 100 in your Box Set’s category, depending on how big your Box Set’s category is
4. If you have a small to medium budget, you should go for
  1. Amazon Kindle Store Top 1,000
  2. Amazon Kindle Store Top 100 in your Box Set’s category
Do not be unhappy that readers are getting books worth $10 to $30 for $0.99
1. You should be happy that readers are having a very positive experience with your books
2. They will come to find your other books
3. If the other books are priced at reasonable prices (between $0.99 and $4.99), they will buy them
Do not put Low Quality Books or Your Worst Books in your Box set
1. You should put your very best books in your Box Set
2. If you put your best books, readers will have a great reading experience
3. They will be hooked on you for life
Going it alone when there are opportunities to Cooperate and Increase Your Chances of Success
1. If possible, band together with other authors in your book genre and create a 10 book Box Set
Using a book cover that suggests your Box Set is a single book
1. A Box Set’s BIGGEST selling point is that it is 3+ books in one box set, at a very reasonable price
2. Make that OBVIOUS. It is the main reason readers are going to buy your book. Make it painfully clear that they will get THREE books for the price of one
3. Feature the Incredible Value Proposition of the Box Set by having an actual BOX SET of books on the cover
Having a total length less than 500 pages
1. A single book should be between 150 to 300 pages
2. A box set of 3 books should be over 500 pages
3. If your book length is under 500 pages, readers will think you are trying to trick them by passing off a collection of short stories or novellas as a Box Set
4. Your Box Set must be at least 500 pages to kick off The Box Set Effect
Fighting with other authors or with the Box Set organizer or with the Box Set book promotion sites
1. If your Box set promotion does not go well, it will almost always be because of the mistakes on this list
2. Please do not fight with your other authors. You will need their help in the future
3. Please do not fight with the person who did all the hard work of setting up the Box Set and organizing everything
4. Please do not fight with the Box Set book promotion sites
  1. There are very few good book promotion sites that work
  2. Of those, not all accept Box Sets
  3. It is, therefore, imperative that you remain on good terms with the book promotion sites that are good at promoting Box Sets
5. When things go wrong, there will usually be one author who tries to blame the other authors in the group
  1. If you are that person, stop doing that as it hurts everyone, including yourself
  2. If you are not that person, stay as far away as possible. You do not want to become the target of that person’s frustration
Getting greedy and fixing what isn’t broken
1. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it
2. If your Box Set at $0.99 is selling well and making you money
  1. The little devil on your left shoulder starts whispering – Why not make it $2.99 and make more money? Pretty sure tripling the price will not affect sales one bit
  2. Do not listen to that little devil
  3. The MAGIC is in 3 books for 99 cents
    1. Better to keep selling thousands of books at 99 cents
    2. Than to start selling dozens of books at $2.99 or $4.99
3. If your Box Set group is working well, keep working with those authors
  1. Don’t start trying to ‘solo it’, thinking a Box Set of just your books can perform the same
  2. It most probably cannot
Working with a Box Set organizer you do not know very well or should not trust
1. The organizer of the Box Set will handle the finances
2. The organizer will also handle the distribution of earnings
3. Please make sure it is someone you know very well and can trust
Working with authors you do not know or do not like
1. There is going to be a LOT of stress
2. There will be a lot of high tension situations
3. Unless you are working with people you know well and like, things will become a nightmare

The above are the most common mistakes we see authors make

Leveraging Box Sets to Become a Bestselling Author

Box Sets are absolutely MAGIC at making authors bestselling authors. They are so good it will leave you stunned

However, there is a lot of preparation work involved. Please read through these sections carefully and do your Due Diligence well

To Become a Bestseller you MUST pick the absolute PERFECT categories for your Box Set

You can mess up a lot of other things and still do very well

You cannot mess up the Selection of Your Box Set’s Book genres

They must be absolutely perfect

The Game is Won or Lost in the Picking of Book Categories

Becoming a Category Bestseller at Amazon

This is the number of sales required to become a Category Bestseller at Amazon

10 to 30 over a week for a very small category

30 to 100 over a week for a small to medium category

100 to 300 over a week for a medium category

300 to 1,000 over a week for a large category

If you can get 1,000+ sales in one day you can even go for Top 100 Bestseller in the entire Amazon store (ebooks store)

You just need to combine together enough Box Set book promotion sites to hit the required number of sales

Most good box set book promotion sites list the number of sales you can expect, or have a target number of sales, or have a range of sales

As far as selecting categories, ideally you want to have a combination of small and medium and large categories for your Box Set

You can email KDP support (kdp.amazon.com) and ask them to add 10 categories to your Box Set

You should aim for a good mix, such as – 3 very small categories, 2 small categories, 3 medium categories, 2 large categories

Each and every category should be a Very Good Fit for your Book

Any attempts to ‘game the system’, by choosing inaccurate categories for your book just because you think they are ‘easy’ to rank in, will usually lead to failure

Becoming a Top 100 Bestselling Book at Amazon

To become a Top 100 Bestselling book at Amazon you need either

Over 1,000 sales within a day
1. To get 1,000 sales within a day the only option is Bookbub. Please do check their rules around multi author box sets before submitting
2. To make things safer you should add a few more of the Top 10 Box Set book promotion sites to Bookbub. Good choices are – Books Butterfly, Robin Reads, eReader News Today, BookSends
3. Run these either on the same day as Bookbub, or 1 to 2 days earlier
OR
2,000 to 4,000 sales over the course of a week
1. To get 2,000 to 4,000 sales over the course of a week you can either do
  1. A Combination of Bookbub and as many of the Top 10 Box Set Book promotion sites as you can manage
  2. OR
  3. (If you can’t get Bookbub) As many of the Top 10 Box Set Book promotion sites as you can manage and Facebook Ads and Amazon Marketing Services Ads
    1. This option (replacing Bookbub with Facebook Ads and AMS Ads) is considerably more expensive
    2. So, first please try and get approved by Bookbub
2. If possible the sales should be gradually (or rapidly) increasing

Becoming a New York Times Bestselling Author or an USA Today Bestselling Author

This is very tough, even with a Box Set

We encourage you to only consider this option if you have

For a solo author Box set
1. A very polished box set
2. Excellent cover
3. Over $10,000 budget, with option to go up to $30,000 or higher
4. Confirmed Bookbub as otherwise the costs go up dramatically to get the 1,000 to 3,000 sales Bookbub will get your Box Set
5. A medium to large reader base
6. A Facebook marketing expert helping you
7. Some real world marketing campaigns lined up
For a Multi Author Box Set
1. A very polished box set
2. (If possible) A few New York Times Bestselling Authors and USA Today Bestselling Authors included in the Box set
3. Excellent Cover
4. Combined Budget of between $10,000 to $50,000
  1. That’s $1,000 to $5,000 each if there are 10 authors
  2. That’s $2,000 to $10,000 each if there are 5 authors
5. Confirmations with at least 7 of the Top 10 Box Promotion Sites
6. At least one person who is very good at Facebook Ads
7. (If possible) Real world campaigns

After you have all that lined up

Please spend a good month reading up on how to become a New York Times Bestselling Author and doing your due diligence

Then please spend another month planning out everything and lining up everything including

What books will be in the Box Set
A world class Cover for the Box Set
Your Budget and how you will allocate it
The main pillars of your marketing – Bookbub, rest of the Top 10 Box Set book promotion sites, Facebook Ads, real world advertising, etc
How you will get reviews right at the start
How you will ensure you get reviews right at the start from your most loyal readers
How the different promotions are stacked together
What week you will schedule all the promotions for
1. There is a very specific 7 day period of sales which is considered for both lists
How you will cover the requirement to generate a substantial number of sales from outside Amazon Kindle Store
1. The consensus is that you need 500 to 1,000 or more sales from Barnes & Noble and Apple and Nook
Is there a way to generate paperback sales and increase your chances of success
1. This is one of the downsides of using a Box Set – it’s pretty hard to sell paperbacks and hardcovers
2. However, every bit helps

After that, you have to combine everything and execute well on your plan

If you can get someone experienced to help you with this, that would be a very good idea

Improving the Results of Your Box Set Promotions with the Top 10 Box Set Book Promotion Sites

These are the key principles and guidelines that will help you maximize the results of your box set promotions

The Game is Won or Lost in the Picking of Categories and Sub Categories
1. The one skill that has the most impact on your success as an author is the skill to pick the right categories
2. The right category to write your book in
3. The right category in the bookstores to put your book in
4. The right category to promote the book in, when promoting with book promotion sites and advertising networks such as Facebook
The more polish and hard work and beauty you put into your book and writing, the more your book will sell
1. PROVIDED you pick the right market to write it for
2. This is a fundamental truth – the higher the quality of a product, the more it will sell (Provided there is a market for it)
  1. There is no way to escape this truth
The most important marketing aspect/element is your book cover
1. You can take everything else (author website, author profile, book page, book description, your social media pages, your book title) and combine them
2. Your Book Cover will still have a larger impact on whether or not your book succeeds – larger than all of these combined
Have One Main Goal and ensure you hit it
1. There is an old Chinese saying – A man with one foot each in two different boats, usually ends up in the river
2. Pick 1 Main Goal – The One Thing which makes everything else easy and/or unnecessary
3. Then make sure you achieve that goal
Tell readers EVERYTHING they need to know. Assume that readers can not read your mind at all. Assume that readers know absolutely nothing about what authors desire
1. The reader does not know what category your book is in, until and unless you tell the reader
2. The reader does not know you put 2 years of love into your book, unless you show the author
  1. Buying a $10 cover that looks like someone made it in 3 minutes makes the reader think you spent 3 days writing the book
  2. Getting cheap editing leads to lots of mistakes and typos. Readers run away from such books
  3. Make sure the packaging and polish of the book match the amount of love and effort you put into it
3. The reader does not know you would appreciate a review
The biggest reassurance the reader needs is that the book is in a category that they read
1. 99% of authors assume that readers just magically know that the book is in the book category that they read and love
2. No, readers do not know it
  1. There is an endless stream of disingenuous people gaming the ebook stores and putting books in wrong categories, pretending short stories are full length books, and trying to pass off 1/5th of a book as the ‘first in the series’
3. You have to make it clear from the book cover, from the genres listed on the page, and from the book description and title that your book is in the Right Category
4. This is so critically important we will repeat this again – Readers NEED TO KNOW that you will not waste 3 hours of their life and the only reading time they might have that month
  1. Put your book only in the categories in which it is a good fit
  2. CLEARLY tell and show readers what the book category is
  3. Do not assume that readers magically know what the book category is
Readers trust other readers more than they trust anyone else
1. Make sure you get AUTHENTIC reviews from real readers
2. Never ever put any fake reviews
  1. Not sure why it is, people who write fake reviews write such impressively bad reviews it is always obvious they are fake
  2. Even zero reviews is better than someone in broken English calling your book ‘the best mistery novel since Jane Austen wrote Sherlock Holmes’
3. Make sure you have reviews before your book promotion has started
  1. If you can’t get reviews before, get them as soon after the book promotion has started

One key thing to keep in mind

All the requirements that the top box set book promotion sites have
Are very similar to the things you need to do to get great results (the list above, and other similar best practices)
This entire list is doubly important
1. It will get your book approved by the top box set book promotion sites
2. It will greatly increase the results of your box set promotion

Guide to getting more Reviews from Your Box Set Promotion

Here are the key things to do to get more reviews

Write very good books
1. The better the books in the box set, the better the reviews
Sell more books
1. Depending on the quality of your book you will get between 1 and 10 reviews for every 1,000 sales
2. So sell as many books as you can to get more reviews
Ask for reviews
1. Ask for reviews at the point readers are happiest i.e. at the end of every book in the box set
2. Ask for reviews from your best customers i.e. your most loyal readers and your street team (if you have one)
[Specific to Box Sets] Provide a TON of Value
[Specific to Box Sets] Have the Box Set at $0.99 or $2.99
1. Readers are more likely to leave a good review if they feel they got a lot of value and paid a small price
[Specific to Box Sets] Format the combined box set well and make it easy to switch between books

Here are the key things you must do to avoid getting bad reviews

Do not ask readers who are unhappy
1. If some reader writes in to complain, make sure you don’t ask them for a review
2. If that reader is on your email list, that means you must make sure not to email that reader when emailing your reader list
Do not have typographical mistakes and errors which pull the reader out of the story
1. These are one of the biggest reasons for bad reviews
2. For a box set, this means EVERY book in the box set must be well edited and proof read
Do not have books with cliffhangers
Make sure to put your Box Set only in the right categories
1. Please don’t put a Romantic Suspense in Mystery genre
2. Please don’t put a Dark Romance in Horror
3. Please don’t put a Shifter Romance in Non Fiction > Zoology
4. Put the Box Set in the right categories so that readers don’t buy it thinking it is some other genre from what it actually is
[Specific to Box Sets] If there are books from multiple categories in the box set, make this Abundantly Clear in the book description and Box Set title
[Specific to Box Sets] Make sure every book in the Box Set is very good
1. For Box Sets, readers will often read just 1 to 3 of the 10 books and then leave a review
2. A Box Set is only as strong as its weakest link

Pricing Your Box Set for Sales VERSUS Pricing Your Box Set for Revenue

Our advice is to focus on

Reaching lots of readers
Getting lots of sales
Getting lots of follow on sales
Reaching Bestseller Status in one or more categories
Giving lots of value to readers so they form a very positive perception of the authors of the Box Set

All of those require a price point of $0.99

At the most you can go to $2.99, though that means you lose the Box Set Effect and get far fewer sales than you would with the $0.99 price point

This post is not about how to maximize the amount of revenue you can make because we have seen repeatedly

Authors trying to maximize revenue with Box Sets by using price points like $4.99 and $7.99 fall flat
Authors focusing on giving value with $0.99 Box Sets not only get more sales and (sometimes) Bestseller Status, they also make more money
1. Sometimes during the promotion itself
2. Sometimes after considering follow on sales
Authors going for $2.99 sometimes do well and sometimes don’t
1. It is not as good a price point as $0.99
2. However, if you really, really don’t want to tap into The Box Set Effect then $2.99 is not a bad price point to go with

Box Sets are not built for high price points. You can test it out yourself and see that higher price Box Sets massively underperform. Please just don’t test it out using your entire marketing budget

Box Set Book Promotion Sites vs Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads go well with Box Set Book Promotion Sites

Use them both together. Facebook Ads are better at slow and steady sales, and form a good ‘support’ for book promotion sites which are better at getting ‘bursts’ of sales

Box Set Book Promotion Sites vs Amazon Marketing Services

Amazon Marketing Services is rather tricky as it takes time to figure out what works and what doesn’t

For launch week promotion of a Box Set we don’t recommend Amazon Marketing Services as you won’t even be able to figure out if it is working or not
For launch month promotion of a Box Set we don’t recommend Amazon Marketing Services as a combination of Box Set book promotion sites and Facebook Ads will work much better
For general promotion of a Box Set you can test out whether or not Amazon Marketing Services works for your box set
1. Be sure to test it at a time when you are not running anything else
2. If you are in the 25% of authors who can get good or decent Return on Investment from AMS Ads then continue
3. If not, you don’t lose much by leaving out AMS

Be very careful with Amazon Marketing Services as it almost takes a PhD to figure out how to make it work. That time is usually much better spent elsewhere

The 3 Core Skills for Authors & How They Apply to Box Set Book Promotion

The 3 Core Skills for Authors are

Knowing What to Write (Finding Product Market Fit)
Writing Very Well
Marketing Very Well

Any author who can master 1 or more of these Skills will be very successful

Any author who can get very good at all three of these Skills will be successful

Please read this post on Levels of Mastery of The 3 Core Skills for more details. The better you get at these three skills, the more success you will have as an Author

The 3 Golden Rules of Box Set Book Promotion

The 3 Golden Rules of Box Set Book Promotion are

Listen to the Market and Give the Market EXACTLY what it it asks you for
1. The Market does not buy what you wish it would buy
2. The Market does not buy the product you make because you felt like making the product
3. The Market Always Wins
  1. Don’t try to beat the market
  2. Don’t argue with the market
  3. Just give the market what it wants
4. The Market only buys what it wants to buy (Readers only buy the books they want to buy)
5. The Market buys the product which they wanted to buy all along
  1. You have to figure out what the market wants, what it is already buying, what it will buy
  2. Make exactly that
The Game is Won or Lost in the Selection of Genres
1. Pick the right Genres To Write In (Knowing What to Write)
  1. Do your market research
  2. See what readers are buying
  3. See what readers are dying to buy
  4. See which genres are underserved
  5. See which genres are exploding in popularity
2. Pick the Right Genres In The Book Store to Put Your Book In
  1. You must put your book in the PERFECT genres for it
    1. The genres where your Right readers are already looking for books
  2. If you were selling potato crisps/chips, would you put them in the chips aisle, or would you put them in the household cleaning supplies aisle
    1. Then why are you putting your science fiction novel in the romance category?
    2. Put your book only in categories that apply to it
  3. Whatever ‘gaming of the system’ you think you are doing by putting your book in the wrong category, it is hurting your sales
    1. Every single trick you can think of, thousands of authors have tried before
    2. The only thing that works is the SIMPLEST thing – put your book in the best fit categories for your book
3. Pick the Right Genres & Sub Genres at the Book Promotion Sites to Promote Your Book In
  1. Firstly, pick a Box Set book promotion site which promotes books in your genre
  2. Secondly, make sure the Amazon genres match the genres you want the book promotion site to promote it in
    1. If there is something wrong at Amazon let the book promotion site people know what the right genre is
  3. Thirdly, do not try to trick either the store or the book promotion site by misrepresenting the book genres
    1. It never works
    2. Just tell the right category
    3. Tell them what readers the book is written for
    4. Let them use their experience to send it to the right readers
Product Market Fit (picking the right market to write in, and writing the right book for that market) trumps everything else
1. Majority of authors spend 2 hours to 2 days to decide what to write
  1. Then they spend 1 to 5 years writing a book
  2. Then they are shocked when the book does not sell, or if there is no market, or if the market is too crowded
2. Would it not have been better to first do some market research?
  1. Verify that there are actually lots of readers looking to buy such books
  2. Verify that the ratio of Readers to Authors is not 1:1 (as in some genres such as Poetry and YA that is not Romance)
3. Please spend half a year to a year figuring out what categories you should write in
  1. Those categories should make you happy to write in them
  2. There should be lots of readers who buy books in those categories
  3. There should not be too much competition
    1. Ideally there should be close to zero competition
  4. You should be able to write very well in them

The last rule is the most critical. Product Market Fit determines whether you succeed or fail

If you are going to invest 1 to 5 years of your life into writing your book. If you are going to invest most of your free time and a lot of your money into marketing and promoting your book

Please do yourself a favor and thoroughly research the market and figure out what book categories you should write in. Please do this BEFORE you start writing

June 2020
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