# Publish as collection or separately?



## Telcontar (Jan 3, 2012)

What do you guys think of short ebooks? I'm going to be releasing a couple for free, and one of them is quite small, < 3k words, and I'm wondering whether or not I should just bundle both free stories into one eBook. Is that a common practice. My initial instinct is to keep them separate.


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## Devor (Jan 3, 2012)

Telcontar said:


> What do you guys think of short ebooks? I'm going to be releasing a couple for free, and one of them is quite small, < 3k words, and I'm wondering whether or not I should just bundle both free stories into one eBook. Is that a common practice. My initial instinct is to keep them separate.



I don't know what's common practice, but my gut says to keep them separate and cheap, and then publish the collection after a while.

These things follow what's called the "S" curve - you start slow, reach a tipping point where you expand like crazy, and then it caps out and begins to dip.  When you're at that capping stage, you need to do something to reboot the curve - that's when you publish the collection or announce a sequel.


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## MichelleHall99 (Jan 3, 2012)

I think releasing an eBook is cool too. Since there are readers that cannot wait to see the new release.


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## sashamerideth (Jan 3, 2012)

Telcontar said:
			
		

> What do you guys think of short ebooks? I'm going to be releasing a couple for free, and one of them is quite small, < 3k words, and I'm wondering whether or not I should just bundle both free stories into one eBook. Is that a common practice. My initial instinct is to keep them separate.



Here's my plan with Rosy. 

Release each episode on Amazon for .99, with the first free on my blog. After I hit five episodes or so, release an anthology. As each episode will weigh in at about 5k words, that should give me a decent sized anthology. Rinse and repeat, with the second anthology including the first, and so on. 

I have thought about a $7.50 or more price on the anthology, and just updating the file each time a new episode comes out, but I don't know how well that will work in practice.

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## Telcontar (Jan 4, 2012)

This topic has drifted a bit (for one, my stories are going to be free, entirely) but I wanted to ask you about something, Sashamerideth.

If the second anthology includes the first, wouldn't somebody buying the second anthology who has already bought the first be paying for the same thing twice? Maybe you'll be trying to include the first as a 'freebie' without it actually intended to contribute to the price, but I could see being annoyed that I have so many copies of the same story taking up space in my eReader. 

I won't say that I'll never re-publish a story in an anthology (truth be told, that sounds exactly like something I might do, down the road) but I think it would be best to limit the times it appears. At most I would want it to show up twice, and to be surreptitious enough to not merit anybody's ire if they happen to buy both versions.

Too, isn't 7.50 for the anthology a little out of wack if you are charging cumulatively less for all the individual stories? Prevailing marketing wisdom dictates a mark-down for package deals, not the opposite.


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## sashamerideth (Jan 4, 2012)

It's moot, as I only have one episode so far, and at this rate, one new episode a month.

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