Recently, I read an 8-book series that started with a very short (50-ish pages) freebie prequel. As I often do, I studied this series and how the author did things in terms of the cover art, the blurbs, the style of the books, the overall marketing, etc. I mean, this is how most Indie authors learn: by watching how other authors do things. And I noticed a few things that led me down a deep rabbit hole.
Here are my overall observations:
1. This free prequel was basically the inciting incident that would then lead the characters through the rest of the series. It ended abruptly and on a huge cliffhanger. (I find this very unique because what if I hadn't read the prequel first? What if I'd just jumped into book one? I wouldn't have seen some really important scenes / characters, because book 1 picks up exactly where the prequel ends.)
2. Each subsequent book in the series was short, too. Most came in under 150 pages each. There were 7 books in the series (not counting the prequel).
3. Each book ended abruptly and on a cliffhanger. At the end, a direct link was given to click through and buy the next book. (This is very handy, and I think all authors should do this!)
4. The prequel was free. Book one was $0.99. Each book thereafter was $2.99.
5. Each book has essentially the same cover image with different color schemes and the corresponding titles. (Personally, this bugs me. I love an eye-catching cover, but if every single cover is different only in color and title, that easily confuses me and makes it hard to keep the books straight.)
Now, I'm not slamming or shaming this author at all! I fully support all artists being paid for their hard work. In fact, I really enjoyed the series, but the more I think about this, the more I'm left wondering:
Do readers prefer books like this?
Short continuous stories that feel more like serials than full novels?
I paid just shy of $16 for this series, which isn't bad when you think about it. I got 8 books in total (including the free prequel), but if you take time to think about the numbers (which I did), I'm not sure I got my money's worth. The author could have very easily combined all of these into 3 or 4 books, and at the end, as a consumer, I probably would've paid less overall.
My Cursed Series is 7 books long, and they do end on cliffhangers, but each book is well over 300 pages / 100k words. So I don't necessarily feel "bad" about asking readers to pay $2.99 or even $4.99 for my books. I honestly feel like they're getting their money's worth.
So my question to readers is this: Do you prefer a lot of shorter books all priced the same that also look the same, or a series of longer books all priced the same with all different cover art?
At the end of the day, the blurb is what ultimately sold me on this series, and I didn't pay much attention to the covers and pricing scheme until after I'd already finished buying and reading all of them. Am I mad that this type of marketing worked on me? A little, but I'm much more intrigued by this method, and that rabbit hole I fell down -- yeah, a LOT of indie authors are employing this publishing method. And a lot of them seem to have high rankings and stellar reviews. Maybe they're on to something here...
I think having a free prequel is good marketing but not one that you need to read to understand the series. And a 150 page book is barely a novella, not a novel. It seems that your author priced her books accordingly at 0.99 cents but I’ve bought plenty of full length novels for that amount too. I think it’s a bit dangerous to set readers expectations up for such short reads without letting them know it’s basically a serialization, not a series.
ReplyDeleteIf this was a YA series, I think it’s even sadder to do that because do we want to train YA readers that short is the norm or “better”?
I read plenty of adult indie series and they’re always over 100k words like your books are and I would be angry to have them end on a huge cliffhanger and have to wait for the next one.
I agree on all points! I think the whole idea of "if you don't read this, you won't understand the series" is problematic, especially when it's a prequel and not book 1. And on Amazon, where I bought these books, the prequel isn't even listed as part of the "main content" of the series, so... I don't know. I'm still scratching my head about all of this.
DeleteAnd that's a great point about YA and training younger readers that shorter is better. Sure, there are times I prefer a quick read, but like everything else, there needs to be a wide variety to choose from.