Since I read fantasy, a genre that often features trilogies and longer series, I have plenty of paperback and hardback omnibuses on my shelves. In case you’re not familiar with the publishing-world version of the term, this is when two or three novels are bound together in one book. If you have an ebook series, releasing an omnibus can be a great decision (I don’t have enough novels out to do it myself yet, but I’ve seen other authors do this to great effect).
Here are a few benefits of releasing an omnibus:
It gives your readers a deal
Let’s say you have Book 1 priced at $0.99, Book 2 at $1.99, and Book 3 at $2.99. A reader would spend $6 to acquire all three individually. If you list an ebook omnibus with all three titles for $4.99, then your reader will save money.
You can potentially make more money
When I mentioned the above example, your first thought might have been…”Wait, but then I make less money.”
But, with the current royalty structures, that’s not true, at least not at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. where you only get the 70% cut if you price your ebooks at $2.99 and up. You’d only be making 35% on Books 1 and 2 if the readers purchased the novels individually. If you group them together for a single higher-than-$2.99 price, you’ll be making 70% on all three titles and taking home more than if you only sold them as singles.
Wait, I say in my best Ron Popeil voice, there’s more:
While we hope every reader who picks up your first book will love it and go on to buy the other two, it’s a foregone conclusion that this won’t be the case. In that event, you’d only be making the 35 cents (35% of the Book 1 price) from that reader.
But, if they were attracted by the savings the omnibus represented (hey, we all love a deal!) and went straight ahead and bought all three novels together, you would make $3+ (on a $4.99 ebook) from that same reader. They’ll probably be more likely to try Books 2 and 3 as well since they already bought them.
You have more books “out there”
As we’ve talked about before, one of the biggest “secrets” to success seems to be simply having more ebooks out there for people to find. Most of the authors I’ve come across who are making a living e-publishing have in the neighborhood of 10 (or more!) books out.
An omnibus let’s you have another book out there that people might stumble across while they’re roaming the virtual aisles of Amazon, iTunes, B&N, etc.
Downsides?
As far as I’m concerned, the only downside of releasing an omnibus is that you’ll need to have another cover illustrated, which is an expenditure if that’s not something you can do yourself (and most of us can’t). That said, I have seen several authors just take vertical slices from their existing covers and add new title text. This should be an inexpensive job for an artist, and you may even be able to manage it yourself (I couldn’t, but we all know you guys are more talented than I am).
I suppose, too, that an omnibus won’t work for every author. It’s tailor made for those with a trilogy or a series, but you could always give it a try if you have three novels in the same genre. If you have multiple novels to choose from, try bundling your best seller with one or two that don’t sell as well. This might get more readers to try those other books.
One of the great things about electronic publishing is it doesn’t cost any more to put together a 1,000-page ebook versus a 200-page book. But the omnibus still represents a deal to your reader, so it’s a win all around.
Thoughts? Have any of you tried an omnibus yet, or do you plan to?
Excellent post, and something I’ve been thinking of myself for some time. Actually, I’ve more thought of this in the direction of a print omnibus. As an indie, it is still quite expensive to put out print versions, but a print omnibus, apart from being a bit pricey for a single volume, is still going to be way cheaper than asking the reader to fork out money for all print versions. Of course, if you do that, you make an ebook omnibus available too. Duh.
I definitely plan on doing this down the road. As a reader, I love being able to get a set of books for a decent price. (Especially with fantasy series/sets.) I think it’s great to give people another format to choose from.
Can’t wait to get to the omnibus point. 😀 I’ve read them. They publish them in sci-fi, too.
I have been planning to do this with each of my series as I complete them. All of my series range from 3 to 4 books and I don’t see any reason not to create an Omnibus out of each. Personally I will often hunt for the omnibus of a series before buying any of the individual books. Too many times I’ve found one book in a series, read it, and never located the rest of the series. Very frustrating when I enjoyed the book. With Amazon, I haven’t run into that, but I still prefer the omnibus.
Thanks for the comments, guys!
Yup, they can be an even better deal in print, Brondt. Unless you’re foolish and let the publisher trick you into buying books you already have because they created an omnibus with a new title and new cover art…. Not that this has ever happened to me, mind you. *innocent whistle*
TL, yes, I always found it frustrating when bookstores didn’t have *all* the books in a series and you’d have to special order them, or you went to every other bookstore in town because you were impatient and wanted to read the next book that very night… Not that this ever happened to me either. Ahem.