Romantic suspense authors band together for boxed set
In the genre-fiction business, it's all about "discoverability" — getting books where the public can find and buy them. Until recently, publishers — with their wide distribution and promotional budgets — had a big advantage over indie authors when it came to visibility. Now indie authors are figuring out how to level the playing field with eye-catching strategies to attract readers.
One promotional technique is the boxed set — stories published as a collection at a low price to attract new readers. Sometimes one author puts out a collection of her previously published books. Other times, several authors get together to pool their promotional clout. A recent successful example is the Dangerous Attraction Romantic Suspense Boxed Set, the brainchild of two romantic suspense authors, Dana Marton and Jill Sanders, who met online by chance. Dana's a traditionally published author who entered the indie market a couple of years ago. Jill has been on her own from the first.
They invited eight other best-selling romantic suspense authors to join them in a collection of nine full-length novels plus a bonus Christmas novella, all available for 99 cents for a limited time.
The others in the group are Kaylea Cross, Lori Ryan, Toni Anderson, Sharon Hamilton, Debra Burroughs, Patricia Rosemoor, Marie Astor and me.
"We've all agreed to put in maximum effort to make it a success," says Sharon Hamilton.
The authors capitalized the project with enough money for a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), significant prizes for readers (including an iPad Mini), and some paid advertising, such as boosting posts about the collection on their Facebook fan pages to give them a wider audience. They coordinated the promotional efforts through a private Facebook page where they could discuss strategies, make appointments, and leave files — such as collections of tweets about the book for members to use, a press release, and assignments for various phases of the project. And you can bet there was a lot of give-and-take about the title and the cover picture, since every author had an opinion about these vital ingredients. At the end of the discussions, they voted on the title and the cover image.
After using the private page for several weeks, the authors then went on to set up a Dangerous Attraction Facebook page and invite their friends. They provided content such as blurbs for their individual books and bios of their heroes and heroines and gave out prizes using Rafflecopter. Next they sent out invitations to a launch party, where the authors could give out more prizes, post pictures of their characters, and chat with readers on advertised subjects like how to weave together romance and suspense or how to create a great hero. A lot of effort went into designing a fun event to attract readers and give the book an attention-getting launch.
In addition to using Facebook and Twitter to spread the word about the project, the authors signed up for a slew of blogs, advertised on their own websites and newsletters, and tapped into Goodreads. Although they started on Amazon, they also made sure the book was available on all the other major platforms, including iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.
"Our strategy depended a lot on the social-media platforms available to authors," Jill Sanders says.
"We pooled our knowledge, using what we'd each learned about promotion," Dana Marton adds.
The Dangerous Attraction Romantic Suspense Boxed Set is on sale, at Amazon and all major e-retailers, for an introductory price of 99 cents.
Visit Facebook to find out more about the boxed set and the authors.
Rebecca York, who is thrilled to be part of this dynamic group, is the author of more than 70 romantic suspense novels and novellas.