I’ll tell you up front that as an author I’m not a fan of the multi author boxed sets that they then sell for 99 cents. It does what it’s supposed to I guess, which is get new readers, but there is no way that 14 authors are going to make any money off of a 99 cent book (35 cents profit), even if it does reach the USA Today and New York Times lists.

Now I’ll also tell you that as a reader, I love these boxed sets. I get to try new authors for less than a dime a book. I’m hardly out anything if I don’t find one I like I can move on to the next one.

How about you? How do you feel, as an author, would you participate in one of these boxed sets? What do you expect to get from it? As a reader, do you love them? What do you expect to get from them? Are they always new authors for you or some of your favorites?

Do you think box sets have run their course, done their duty and should go the way of the dinosaur?

Leave me come comments and win print copy of my book, Redeemed by a Rebel. (US participants will receive the print copy, international winner will receive an ecopy of the book.)

Here is a piece by my friend E. Ayers on the subject.

Here’s My Two Cents
which looks a whole lot more like dime.

Well, I’ve done that multi-author boxed set so I know what it does and doesn’t do. It put one of my books into the hands of a plethora of readers. Am I willing to do it again? Yes!

The amount made wasn’t very much, but it was a tidy little amount. I’ll say more than nothing and a whole lot less than we’d like to think we’d make per book. But when I look around and see what authors will pay to put their name in front of readers, this was cheap advertising and the reader got my book and quite a few more. What I’ve seen is sales on my other books. I also have a story in Debra Holland’s Sweetwater Springs Christmas anthology and that I know has spurred some sales. But I believe it was the boxed set (Christmas on Main Street, which is no longer available) that became the catalyst for many sales. Even though that was a contemporary western in the box, I’m seeing sales on my River City books, which I swear went dormant during the holiday.

So why would someone read a sweet western and then read a more mainstream book? If people like the style of an author’s writing, they will read that author. I will read anything a favorite author writes because I know I’m going to be reading a great story so it doesn’t matter if it’s set in the 1800’s, 900’s or that it’s a crazy contemporary steampunk.

I wouldn’t care if you wrote a contemporary whodunit because I know you create these great characters and wonderful stories for them so why wouldn’t I like what you write if you wrote something different? I don’t think I’m alone. Yes, there are diehard readers who will only read that one genre, and I’m sure many of those readers bought that boxed set because it contained a book by someone they knew and enjoyed. How many bothered to read all eleven books in the set? And how many people read mine and hated it because I don’t write the same type of book as someone else in that set. I promise there’s not one stinker in the whole set, which doesn’t guarantee everyone is going to like all the books.

So just to play with numbers, I’ll say out of all the sales that maybe less than one third of the people who bought the set might get around to eventually reading my book. I have a 50/50 chance they will like me enough to buy more of my books. That’s an awesome number of readers!

Looking at the anthology with Debra Holland, I believe more people read my story because it’s shorter and those stories are tied together so it’s loads of fun reading them. For every Sweetwater Springs Christmas sold, I have a 50/50 chance of obtaining a new reader, which is different from a much small percentage of readers who might get around to reading what I wrote in the big boxed set. It’s 50% of the whole or 50% of less than a third. (I really hope what I just said makes sense.)

As a reader, boxed sets are a fabulous way to try out new authors. We both know a ton of authors who have joined together and created boxed sets. I’ve collected quite a few on my Kindle. Because for 99 cents or even $2.99, it’s a steal of a deal! I knew the one author but I didn’t know the others, or I knew a few but had never read their books. Have I found some great authors? You betcha!

But just as free books have flooded the market and hurt us, so does the boxed set. Why buy a single book for $2.99 or even $5.99 when someone can grab a boxed set of five, ten, or more books for next to nothing? Readers then expect that all books should be that cheap.

I’m an author. This is not my hobby! It is my career. It’s how I make a living. I don’t have a partner bringing home a paycheck. Don’t expect me to write and give my books away for free or to box ten of them up and sell them for 99 cents. It costs me money to produce books. There are cover costs, the expense of paying editors, etc. I must sell a couple thousand books at 99 cents to just cover basic expenses. If I were to box several, I’ve increased what I must sell. Please don’t expect any author to be capable of selling 10,000 books each month just to pay the electric bill on the house! It’s totally impossible.

But there are those who will only read free books or will never buy a book over 99 cents. I have a sneaking suspicion that they are some of the same folks who will drop $6 on a fancy mocha latte, extra shot, upside down with caramel drizzle. But there are also those who are feeding a rabid reading habit and could never afford to pay more for books. It doesn’t feel as though it was that many years ago when I was in the grocery store, with a toddler in the cart seat, and I was counting pennies and wondering if I had enough to buy a book with the leftover grocery money that week. So I understand how important price can be.

I think most people are quite willing to pay $2.99 or more for a book, especially when they know they love the author. And what better way is there to find new authors other than through free or boxed sets?

It’s a two-edged sword. But the general public is getting used to ebooks. There was a time when the number of readers was limited. Now almost everyone seems to have an ereader. (Yes, yes, there are still paper readers. We all know that, but we’re discussing cheap books. Ebooks are cheap.) There are plenty of folks who think a 99 cent or free book must be trash because who would sell so cheap? I’d say they don’t understand advertising. The general public is seeing these cheap books for what they are – marketing strategies and a way to discover a new author. And how many people have waited until the library brought in a favorite author so that they didn’t have to pay $22 for a hardback book?

Things are changing. The industry is changing. The readers are getting smarter. Does anyone remember those book-buying clubs years ago? For a penny you’d get 10 paperback books and then pay only $9.99 a month plus S&H and you could read another 6 books each month but you were committed for a year? Those clubs had all the big names and new releases. There are several sites trying to do the same thing today with ebooks.

The only thing that has really changed is that we’re reading on a device instead of holding a book.
E. Ayers

Here is my Sunday Sneak Peek for my latest book Redeemed by a Rebel. As a reward for commenting, you’ll be entered into the drawing for a print copy of my last book, Fiery Bride. Be sure and leave me a comment. (Print book for US winner only. International winner will receive an ecopy)

“Not at all, sir. It was in both our best interests that I do so. The person that is mining the claim for you needs the money I pay. Plus I let her keep fifty percent of the gold she finds in addition to the nominal daily rate I pay, so the situation is a winning one all around.”

“Her? Your miner is a woman?” asked Liam.

“Yes. She and her father have the claim next to mine…er…yours.” A pretty little blush crept up her neck at her error. “The situation was ideal to ask her to work the property to keep the find active so I could sell. If it’s not active, anyone can take the mine over. A lot of the Chinese take over the inactive ones. I didn’t want that to happen so I asked Becky to work the mine for me.”

A customer came in and Miss Sutter held up one finger. “Excuse me. I’ll be right back,” she said before leaving to help the man.

In a few minutes she was back. “I’m sorry for that, but my regular business must come first. I thought our discussion would be lasting a bit longer than I wanted the man to wait. Anyway, yes, Becky Finnegan pans the gold for me. Her father is supposed to work with her, but well, he’s pretty useless if you ask me. Will you need supplies?”

Jake was trying hard to keep up with the conversation. Miss Sutter was a ball of fire. Jumping from one thing to the other.

“Yes,” said Liam. “We’ll need basic supplies for about a month. Sugar, flour, coffee, salt, cornmeal and beans. We also need some bacon rind. Do you have eggs? We haven’t had eggs in more than two months and I know it would be a treat to have them for dinner tonight.”

Here is a little taste of my new book REDEEMED BY A REBEL. For one lucky commentor, I have a t-shirt with the cover on it, size 2x. So have some fun and tell me what you think of the excerpt. Does it make you want to read more or put the book down and forget it? Be honest. I can take it.

August 1876

He’d been dead. Deader than a doornail in a rotted-out door. Becky Finnegan remembered finding the body splayed across the rocks like the annual sacrifice to some unknown god. Heck, that wasn’t something she was likely to ever forget. She’d had to leave him to collect her no good, drunkard father, Billy, from The Gem where he spent all the gold she worked her butt off to get.

She’d lied to Billy once again, only given him part of their gold. If she gave him all of it, like he wanted, nothing would be left to buy food or the pans and other equipment she needed to work their claim. And then there’d be no gold for him to go drown his sorrows. Sorrows that were her fault, according to him, since Becky killed her Ma by getting born. And then he’d beat her and she wouldn’t be able to work so there’d be no gold and the cycle would start again. Better to lie to him.

Resigned, she grabbed the mule’s bridle. Buster snorted at the small jerk she gave the gear as she started walking downstream along the narrow path that followed the creek. She’d made this path, going back and forth to their claim on a daily basis. After collecting Billy from The Gem, after he’d spent another night drowning his sorrows. Better there than at their campsite where he’d just complain and then beat her for the hell of it.

She and her father, Billy, originally came from the coal mines of West Virginia. Some said they were rebels because West Virginia was in the south during the War of Northern Aggression. But that was so long ago and there’d been many, many stops along the way. Becky barely remembered the place anymore. She supposed the only reason she didn’t forget it altogether was because she’d lived there with Grandma Bess. Those were the memories she liked to remember. Grandma Bess was so good to her, but then she had to go and die. Then there was just Billy and new place after new place.

Every time she hoped this might be the spot, the one where they could put down roots. But it never was. Billy leached the goodwill from the townsfolk until there was none left and they had to move on.

She’d gotten lucky with her education. One of the ladies she worked for took pity on her and taught her to read, write and speak so she was able to get better jobs as time went on. But not good enough to keep Billy supplied which was why she spent all day in the cold river panning for whatever gold, flake or nugget, she could find.

She went into The Gem and saw Billy, face down on one of the tables next to the door.

“Hi, just came to get Billy,” she said to the man behind the bar.

“Ah, if it isn’t Miss Finnegan. Where are your bruises Becky? Guess Billy’s been keeping his fists to himself lately.” Al Swearengen, owner of The Gem and procurer of flesh, said from in front of his second floor office.

“No thanks to you and all the whiskey he downs here,” she said. There was a running dialogue that she had with Al, every time she picked up Billy.

“Thanks for that. I love the gold Billy spends here every night. He almost single-handedly keeps me in business.”

She rolled her eyes and looked over at Billy, wondering if she really could be related to the reprobate. She’d get the barkeep to load him on the mule and then, when they got back to camp, she’d untie him and let him slip to the ground. She used to try holding him up, to slow his fall, but too many times, she’d ended up trapped beneath him until she could shove his heavy body off her. Totally ignorant of the whole situation, he blissfully slept off the effects of his alcohol fueled stupor.

There’d been just as many times she left him at The Gem and let them deal with his sorry ass..

“I’ll see his body gets taken care of,” said the barkeep. “In the meantime you get your father and get out. I keep telling you, this ain’t no place for a girl like you to be seen.”

“Oh, I don’t know, Dan,” said Al looking dapper in his black three piece pinstriped suit. He wore no tie and his shirt was open at the collar. Becky craned her neck to look upward at him. “We could give her a job that’s a lot easier than working that claim. Wouldn’t you like that Becky? No more standing in the cold river. You’d be flat on your back, but you’d be warm.”

He leaned on the hand rail of the second floor walkway. The small porch like structure went along the whole back of the building, all of the doors to the whores rooms were off of it and visible from the bar where the barkeep could keep track of the comings and goings of the men from the rooms.

“Not today, Mr. Swearengen, but I’ll be sure and keep your offer in mind.” She hoped the sarcasm came through in her voice.

Swearengen laughed. A great rumble from deep in his chest. “You do that. Help her load Billy on to her mule,” he said to the barkeep then he turned away and went back into his office. “See you tomorrow, Becky,” he called over his shoulder.

She nodded, then looked at the fancy women lounging around the room in varying states of undress and silently agreed with Dan. She should get out. She didn’t understand how they could do what they did. She’d rather work day and night in the creek than let any man with a dollar in his pocket touch her in that way.

OHHHH! I;m so happy. Redeemed by a Rebel is now available for sale, earlier than it’s planned release date of January 31st. I hope if you like this excerpt that you’ll try the book. So here goes the next seven paragraphs in our story.

Miss Sutter was a pretty little blond woman, who seemed quite capable of running the business without any help from a husband or a brother. Definitely not the simpering miss type to be treated with kid gloves. She was all business and didn’t take shit off anyone. Yet, there wasn’t a miner or merchant or mother that walked out of her store without a smile on their face. Jake was impressed.

Liam approached the counter with Jake in his wake. “Miss Sutter? I’m Liam Anderson,” he said using their real name, “and this is my brother, Jake.”

“Misters Anderson, I’m glad you finally made it.” She wiped her hands on the front of her white apron and then held her hand out to Liam.

He took the dainty appendage and said, “So am I. Can you give me directions to the claim? I’d like to get set up before nightfall.”

“Certainly. The claim is still being worked for me but now that you’re here, you’ll be able to do the work yourself. I’ve got a map all done for you. I didn’t know when you’d be here, so I’ve kept the paperwork ready. Here it is.”

She reached under the counter and two pieces of paper which she handed to Liam. A map was drawn on one and the transfer of the claim to Liam was on the other.

“Thank you, Miss Sutter. I appreciate your keeping the claim open for me by having someone work it.”

Here are the buy links:

Amazon – http://amzn.com/B00I1GZAU0