# DriveThru Fiction Spec-Fic Holiday Bundle [Submissions Closed]



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

For those not in the know, DriveThru Fiction is an offshoot of the popular gaming website, DriveThru RPG. It caters mostly to the Nerd Genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Superhero, Pulp Adventure, Steampunk, etc.

It also has pretty much the most awesome and robuse set of author features I've seen on any platform. Want to sell in multiple formats? Load 'em all up. Want to price free? Go for it. Coupons? You got it--in fact, you can set them to self-destruct after X number of uses, Y amount of time, and you can make a bunch of different once for different venues. Discounted your price? The discount shows up in strikethrough INSTANTLY. And the more you sell, the more you can promote on the site itself. If every platform was like this, life would be wonderful.

But enough sales pitch to convince you to sign up anyway (by the way I'm not telling you about all the cool diagnostics tools); what I'm here to talk to you about is bundles.

You know how literally everywhere else you have to republish a new file to sell books as a group or box set? DriveThru disagrees. There, you can link multiple books into a 'bundle' and then set the price of said bundle.

Why that matters to this thread?

You can create a bundle with multiple authors.

I'm currently starting to experiment with said bundles and suddenly realized that the holiday season is about to kick in and maybe it would be a good time to practice some of that 'teaming up' thing I keep preaching on here.

And so this is an interest check thread to see if my fallow spec-ficcers and general nerds would like to get in on this.

Fair Warning: I've literally only been monkeying around in the bundle settings for a day or two, so this is going to be a learning experience unless someone more experienced politely punches me in the face and assumes control of the runaway rocket sled.


----------



## OJ Connell (Mar 23, 2012)

I might be interested in this, though none of my titles are available at DriveThru Fiction. How easy is it to upload my books there? I'd considered doing it before but was under the impression that it didn't get much traffic. Don't know a whole lot about the site, so I'm not sure how effective a bundle there would be. Thoughts? Have any authors out there seen good sales on DriveThru Fiction?


----------



## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

OJ Connell said:


> I might be interested in this, though none of my titles are available at DriveThru Fiction. How easy is it to upload my books there? I'd considered doing it before but was under the impression that it didn't get much traffic. Don't know a whole lot about the site, so I'm not sure how effective a bundle there would be. Thoughts? Have any authors out there seen good sales on DriveThru Fiction?


Same here. Interested, but I've got a Dec 13 hard launch on a title I'm going to deep into right up until the last minute. A few logistical details (ease of account setup, uploading, your lead time, etc) and I'll be able to let you know if I can do it.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

The biggest amount of time it took for me to get my books on there was waiting for them to upload with my crappy internet.

I'm still in the build phase with them (just started in August), so I don't know how they compare with actual sales, but my permafrees are downloaded at ~about a quarter of the volume as on Amazon, which actually kicked Kobo and Apple's butts up around their ears. Assuming the rate of people buying the next book is similar, it will be a *very* good platform.

Edit: You book goes live IMMEDIATELY. And by immediately, I mean 'I made a mistake in my description and learned about it on my sales page ten minutes later' immediately. Propagation into search took about an hour.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I have a title there and I'd be all over this but I don't think Drive Through is really my audience, so my title (Flight to Exile) would really be a draw.


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

I'm a fan of DriveThruFiction's bundling function and have several spec fic titles for sale over there, so I'd be up for it.

OJ and Saul, DriveThruFiction is pretty easy to deal with, though a new account has to be approved. Plus, they offer great promotional tools for publisher. I haven't even tapped into half of them yet.


----------



## ER Pierce (Jun 4, 2013)

Interesting. I've heard their name kicked around a lot. I need to do more research


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

DriveThruFiction is focussed mainly on the three speculative sister genres SF, fantasy and horror, though I offer (and sell) other genres there as well. It's the fiction/e-book branch of an RPG site, so the target audience are gamers.

I'm not sure how open they are to erotica, though there is a check box for "adult content" and speculative erotica (vampires, werewolves, dinos, bigfoot, etc...) should work.

Another thing I like about DriveThruFiction is the ability to send free copies of your works to their staff reviewers. I've got some really lovely reviews at DriveThru.


----------



## SVD (Jan 15, 2013)

I would be up for it, but I don't know if zombie apocalypse fits into spec-fic.


----------



## OJ Connell (Mar 23, 2012)

SVD said:


> I would be up for it, but I don't know if zombie apocalypse fits into spec-fic.


I imagine it would fit in nicely.

All right, I'll try and get my books up there soon, then. A bundle like this might be a good way to gain some new readers.

Vaalingrade, any idea when you'd like to get this bundle up and ready to go? Also, how many authors/books would you like to include? Keep me posted!


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Like I said, this is going to be a ~*learning experience*~ for me, so I'm shooting for 10-20 authors with the bundle coming online Decimber 1 to New Years. It's probably too late to organize quick enough to be up by Black Friday, and frankly, EVERYONE is going to be promoting on Black Friday anyway.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Count me in. I have all 4 for of my books there. They are all Science-Fantasy and have found no love there yet.


----------



## AngryGames (Jul 28, 2013)

Interesting...I think I'll have to go check it out since I'm mostly sci-fi...


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

This is exciting . . . I'd like to put a couple books into the bundle. 

Unfortunately, Misfits' Trek will probably be available too late for this (something like Dec 15). But maybe the other three (or one, or two of them)


----------



## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

I've been at DTF for a while now. Not many sales, I have to say, but I really only have one book that caters to their audience. I'm in with Machine God if you'll have me.


----------



## Victoria J (Jul 5, 2011)

I have a couple of Sci-Fi short stories I'd like to add to the bundle.


----------



## Guest (Nov 19, 2013)

Sounds like fun--count me in!  What do I have to do?


----------



## OJ Connell (Mar 23, 2012)

So...

Looking at their requirements it appears that PDF files are preferred. I can save my Word documents as PDFs, but can't really augment them to their specifications without Adobe software (which, if I'm not mistaken, is $$$). Will a barebones PDF work? Or should I just upload the formats I'm already familiar with, like ePub and Mobi, and skip the whole PDF thing? If anyone with experience on DriveThru Fiction feels like chiming in with their opinion on this, it would be mucho appreciated.

Sigh. The hurdles of learning new markets.


----------



## Guest (Nov 19, 2013)

I remember Julie said something about how people on DriveThru Fiction prefer to actually print their PDFs, and that therefore there's more to it than just clicking "export as PDF" from your word processor to make the kind of file they're looking for. Not sure exactly how they like it, though--maybe someone can clarify?


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I haven't had any complaints using OpenOffice's exported PDF. I suspect that the printable thing is more important for game books than fiction too.

It's important to note that you're in no danger of a customer looking only for PDFs dling your books and getting mad: the site lists all formats the book is available in and prompts you to choose a format when you buy.

Also, if you put up a basic PDF now, there is an option to send a message to previous customers when you update your files.


----------



## S.P. van der Lee (Aug 5, 2013)

I want to upload my YA Paranormal Romance to this website, too, once it's out (November 25th). I'd love to join your bundle if that's possible, but I don't know if my genre is appropriate? Would readers buy such a thing?


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

I used the same PDF that I sent to CreateSpace. Since it seemed to work well for CreateSpace to print, I figure it will work for anyone else.


----------



## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

Funny thing, but I've had the DriveThru Fiction link bookmarked for about six months now. I had been "meaning" to get around to looking at their site - but this year has been a REALLY bad year for me "meaning" to get around to...

(I'll expect I'll get around to finishing that sentence sooner or later.)

I'd definitely be interested in contributing a story or novella. I'm always interested in finding a new market.


----------



## Mackenzie Morgan (Dec 3, 2010)

I have my fantasies at DriveThru Fiction. I'd like to put one or both of mine in the bundle, but I can't claim that they'd be a draw.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

I wanna play! Dog Aliens 1 is up at Drive Thru Fiction.


----------



## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

Count me in. My books range from urban fantasy, space opera, light scifi, and hardcore dystopian settings. So I'll pick whichever one meshes best with everyone else's contributions to toss in the pot.

Thanks.


----------



## Guest (Nov 19, 2013)

Instead of doing one massive bundle where most people's stories won't get read, why don't we split it up into several different bundles of no more than 5, grouped roughly by genre?


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I didn't expect such a big response, but that's a great idea, Joe!

Okay folks, here's what I need in order to get started:

How many books you'd like to put up and their genre, sub-genre and other relevant descriptors that might help sorting, please put this in Bold so my lazy butt can just skim and get a count.

Mine are:

*1 - Fantasy (Sword and Sorcery, non-dark)
1 - Superhero (Silver/Bronze Age)*

Also, ideas for names of these bundles would be of great help.


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

I haven't been to this site in at least a year . . . I've got files to put the books up . . . where on the page do I do this? I'm already logged in . . .


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

*1 - Sci Fi (soft, funny)*

I think naming the bundles will be easier once we can see common themes based on what's in them.


----------



## SVD (Jan 15, 2013)

*1-Horror (Post Apocalyptic - Zombies)*


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

John Blackport said:


> I haven't been to this site in at least a year . . . I've got files to put the books up . . . where on the page do I do this? I'm already logged in . . .


Scroll down to the bottom of the page to that huge bar of links. Under 'Title Management', you'll find a link for 'Set up a new Title'.


----------



## S.P. van der Lee (Aug 5, 2013)

*1 - Paranormal*

? 

Excuse me, but I'm trying to figure out if this is okay or not? Can anyone answer please? Because I'd love to participate, but I don't know if it's appropriate or not.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

*4 - Science-Fantasy* - Good verse evil with magic and space ships.

I can put all 4 in, just book one, or whatever works best. Book one is permafree and can stand alone so it be a good option.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

S.P. van der Lee said:


> *1 - Paranormal*
> 
> ?
> 
> Excuse me, but I'm trying to figure out if this is okay or not? Can anyone answer please? Because I'd love to participate, but I don't know if it's appropriate or not.


Paranormal is most certainly under the Speculative Fiction Umbrella. It would be helpful to know more about it though. Is it Paranormal Romance, Paranormal Detectives, Paranormal Horror...?


----------



## Victoria J (Jul 5, 2011)

*1. The Prototype - Science fiction - (soft, humorous)*
*2. Rainfall - Science fiction - (soft, dying earth?)*


----------



## S.P. van der Lee (Aug 5, 2013)

Vaalingrade said:


> Paranormal is most certainly under the Speculative Fiction Umbrella. It would be helpful to know more about it though. Is it Paranormal Romance, Paranormal Detectives, Paranormal Horror...?


It is a YA paranormal romance, although appropriate for adults, too. The focus lies more on the paranormal aspect, though  There are a lot of deaths, dying is the central theme, and ghosts (haunting, hunting them, killing people etc). It's very dark, actually 

It's going to be published on November 25th. I can have it up by then.


----------



## Mackenzie Morgan (Dec 3, 2010)

*Fantasy - sword and sorcery - parallel world - quest *

No explicit violence, sex, or language. Appropriate for young teens, but most of my readers seem to be older adults.


----------



## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

I can do a soft scifi/comedy, a hard scifi space opera/comedy, or a dark urban fantasy, depending which bundle needs it.


----------



## tensen (May 17, 2011)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I'm not sure how open they are to erotica, though there is a check box for "adult content" and speculative erotica (vampires, werewolves, dinos, bigfoot, etc...) should work.


I believe the checkbox blocks the covers and items from a browse if the customer doesn't have their account setup to view it. At least that is how it occurs on the rpg side of things. The filter came into obvious play a few years back when someone had rpg source book involving tentacle porn and people got up in arms... and then there were covers that are explicit and the customer was viewing at work.


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

I have some Publisher Promotion Points accumulated on DriveThru... How about we spend some of them on banner advertising on that site, for the bundle?

I'm just not sure how far the points I have to spend will take us. Does anyone have experience:

A) making banner ad files to upload? Or

B) calculating how many days a certain number of "impressions" will last? Or

C) anything important I haven't thought of?


----------



## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

This is the first I've heard of DriveThru, but I'm definitely interested. I actually have a holiday special for the Klondaeg series, so that would be a great fit.

*1. Fantasy (Swords & Sorcery, Humorous*)


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

*1. Science fiction (space opera, character-driven, kind of dark, violence, some swearing, no sex)*
*2. Science fiction (sort of a cozy post-apocalyptic tale, no violence, fade to black sex, probably some swearing)*


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

*Heroic War Fantasy (Muskets & Magic, with sex and violence)* *(And, oh yeah. Profanity.)*

This applies to all 3 of my books. Does anyone care how many I put in?


----------



## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

I'd be interested!

1. Hard-science fiction. Adventure.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

So far it look like we have enough to *for sure* do bundles for:

- Hard sci-fi

- Soft Sci-fi

- Sword & Sorcery / General Fantasy

- Apocalyptic

We look close to getting enough for:

- Dark Fantasy

It looks like a good bet that we can also swing:

- Space Opera

- Spec-fic Comedy

Assuming some books go into multiple bundles.


I'm thinking we can have an over-arching name and then the Genre. Maybe we can do a grab bag for some of the under-represented genres.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Bump


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Actually, what those of you who don't have your books up need to do is get them up on the Drive Thru Fiction site.


----------



## Guest (Nov 20, 2013)

1: Science Fiction (Space Opera / Sci-Fi Romance)
2: Science Fiction (Space Opera / Military SF)

I can do either or both of them.  I've also got about 90 unused promotional points, mostly because I don't know how to use them.  But I would like some advice on formatting the PDFs, because I'm not sure if the ones I have up on the site already are formatted the way the customers like them.

Also, does DriveThru Fiction calculate the royalty split on the bundles, or does that have to go through one of us?  Not sure on how the money works on this site.  And also, how do we want to price these?


----------



## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

1: Steamlunk fantasy (The Machine God)

2: Science Fiction (general, time travel twist, short story--Dalston Junction)

Both are up at DTF.


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Joe Vasicek said:


> Also, does DriveThru Fiction calculate the royalty split on the bundles, or does that have to go through one of us? Not sure on how the money works on this site. And also, how do we want to price these?


DriveThruFiction divides the royalties up for multi-publisher bundles. As for pricing, the way I've seen it done with the two multi-publisher bundles I joined is that every publisher adds their book(s) to the bundle and sets their own price, reduced from the regular price. Sometimes, there is a requirement, e.g. free for the recent charity bundle (because otherwise, what's the point?) or half the regular price for another bundle.


----------



## KevinH (Jun 29, 2013)

I'm familiar with DriveThruFiction and have actually had a few sales there. Also, bundling is something I had on my to-do list for the near future, but with respect to KDP. 

Bearing that in mind, is the plan to ultimately make the same bundle(s) available on KDP?


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

I'd like to join in if there's still some room. Put me down for:

*1. Dark/Traditional Fantasy*

I can do a second one in that same genre if needed.

I'll need to re-activate my titles out on the site. I think I took them down way back when I was in Select and I never put them back up. The drive thru site seems to be down right now...


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

KevinH said:


> I'm familiar with DriveThruFiction and have actually had a few sales there. Also, bundling is something I had on my to-do list for the near future, but with respect to KDP.
> 
> Bearing that in mind, is the plan to ultimately make the same bundle(s) available on KDP?


No. The thing is, you can't actually 'bundle' items on Amazon. What you do there is republish an entirely new book with all the works in it. When dealing with multiple authors, it becomes a royalty and tax mess that no one really wants to deal with.

What we're talking about here is a tool DTF provides that essentially lets us link books together under a single label and price, much like Amazon does for the vendors who _aren't_ us.

This is just going to be On DTF.



scottmarlowe said:


> I'd like to join in if there's still some room. Put me down for:
> 
> *1. Dark/Traditional Fantasy*
> 
> ...


Not only do we have space, but you just put Dark Fantasy over the top for 'we can definitely fill that'.


----------



## jenminkman (Mar 2, 2013)

You still have room for a sci-fi/dystopian novella? I recently uploaded my novella The Island (see signature below) to Drive Thru Fiction, so I'd be interested! My author email is [email protected] .


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

I'm in.  Question - is there a preference for free/paid books?  Depending on that I can do Either of the fantasy books below.

I can do: 
Thieves at Heart - Fantasy (free)
Self-Made Scoundrel - Fantasy (not-free)
Botanica Blues - Lovecraftian Horror (short story)


----------



## Guest (Nov 20, 2013)

How should we price these bundles?


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

There's quite a few free books being considered here, but they're spread out between the genres to the point where I'm not seeing, say a 'Free Hard Sci-Fi' bundle.

It looks like we can probably do 3 and 5 dollar bundles in genres, mixing free and paid books in such a way as to give a good value.

Before I saw just how many people were up for this, my mind's eyes was seeing a $10 multi-genre sampler.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

I'm thinking just two bundles, one dark and one light.


----------



## Aducknamedjoe (Apr 25, 2013)

I'd be down to do this with one of my steampunk shorts, and can get it up on DTF this week.

So:

1 Steampunk (alternate history, military)


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Cherise Kelley said:


> I'm thinking just two bundles, one dark and one light.


What is the difference? I am unsure which mine might fall into but that is cause I really do not understand the terms.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I've got the same issue. Rune Breaker isn't light or dark, it's pretty straight Fantasy tone-wise with about as many light moments as, say, Dragonlance or Codex Alera.


----------



## Guest (Nov 20, 2013)

Yeah, I say let's stick with genre.  Light vs. dark is way too nebulous.


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

I guess at some point, we should make a list of all the books we have, and then everyone can suggest whatever bundles occur to them? 

I just finally uploaded the Raingun e-book to drivethru, alongside the Raingun audiobook. I hope to look in on it later on tonight. Does it look okay? I'm paranoid I made some huge mistake.

I have a couple questions, if anyone happens to know the answer:

a) Trying to sample the Raingun audiobook, I get Flash player endlessly buffering on my computer. Did I do something wrong, or do I need to update Flash?

b) The Raingun audiobook and e-book seem to be showing two versions each on my dash --- one of which is up for sale, and the other which is not. Is it possible for me to just delete the one that's not up for sale? 

c) Argh! The Raingun e-book is priced the same as the audiobook --- $7.99! I tried fixing it, dunno if I did it wrong, or it's just taking a while to update...


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

a) I don't know anything about audio samples there, but Flash goes through a thousand updates a month. You might also have to allow DTF via your adblocker if you have one.

b) Did you hit upload multiple times or maybe forget that you already had them up? I've never seen that happen. Check your dropdown menu on the edit title page to see how many that shows.

c) Are they two different titles, or did you upload the audio file as a file under the main title? All file under the same title are the same price. You might need to change the title of the audio book to add (audio book) to it.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Vaalingrade said:


> I've got the same issue. Rune Breaker isn't light or dark, it's pretty straight Fantasy tone-wise with about as many light moments as, say, Dragonlance or Codex Alera.


OK


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Vaalingrade said:


> Not only do we have space, but you just put Dark Fantasy over the top for 'we can definitely fill that'.


Cool. I have 3 of 4 titles back in action now. I'm working on the last one now.

So I can do:

*1. The Five Elements (dark/traditional fantasy/steampunk)
2. The Hall of the Wood (dark/traditional fantasy)*

Depending on how many we want in the bundle.


----------



## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

One of my books went live on DriveThru today. (Great, another sales page to obsess over...)

I can do

*1. Klondaeg Saves Fromsday(Swords & Sorcery, Humorous, Short Story)* This one is a holiday-themed short story and is a permafree on most sites.
*2. Klondaeg the Monster Hunter (Swords & Sorcery, Humorous, Novella)* If you can use more than one per author.


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

Ok, now I've got all 3 books up. I uploaded both EPUB and MOBI for all 3, but all the books are showing as available in MOBI format only for some reason... will keep tinkering


----------



## S.P. van der Lee (Aug 5, 2013)

I've uploaded my book, but it's still on 'deactivated' because my book will go live on november 25th.

However, I have no clue how to see what genres I picked?? I don't see it anywhere on the book page. Anyone know? I think I've selected YA and fantasy and also urban-fantasy XD Maybe even horror ... can't remember.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

John - I'm guessing it's the "product file type" setting.  They don't detect what files you uploaded, you have to set it.  Go to "update digital download files", select your book and check your "product file type".  It probably says mobi.  I changed mine to say "multiple formats"  see if that works for you.

S.P. - to check your genres go to "edit title listing", select your book, and scroll down to "filters" section.  Those filters/categories are your genres.  Not sure how to see them on the live site, but that's where you set them.


----------



## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

Okay, well, when there's a final headcount and you're starting to put together the bundles, let me know. If it's easier than keeping PMs here straight, you can email me at [email protected]


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Now that we're getting a better picture of what books we've got we really should start talking how to divvy up the bundles, names, and pricing. Once I have those, I can create the bundles and start sending bundle passwords to people.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Vaalingrade - I hope this helps with the organization of all of that -

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqtiRUXa-oxmdGlEaFdkNno2dmZnVXYyd2QxVGVRMnc&usp=sharing

It's a google doc with everyone who was interested and their genre. Anyone can edit it, so if folks want to add the missing info it could help with creating the bundles. I added a price column there so we can list the price of the books on DriveThru so we can get a good idea of pricing the bundles.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

chrisanthropic said:


> Vaalingrade - I hope this helps with the organization of all of that -
> 
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqtiRUXa-oxmdGlEaFdkNno2dmZnVXYyd2QxVGVRMnc&usp=sharing
> 
> It's a google doc with everyone who was interested and their genre. Anyone can edit it, so if folks want to add the missing info it could help with creating the bundles. I added a price column there so we can list the price of the books on DriveThru so we can get a good idea of pricing the bundles.


That's awesome! Thanks for creating that, Chris. Yeah, it can be sorted by genre to create the bundles.


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

It's chrisanthropic to the rescue --- AGAIN!!  

Is there a thriller adventure series about all your adventures? 'Cause there SHOULD be!!

EDIT: Ok, I added all three books. 

I don't mind if you don't want to use all three, or if you want to keep the genre simplified to just plain "Fantasy". 

If we do multiple bundles, though, I suppose we could try and bundle a small group of military/war fantasy, a small group of dystopian, a small group dealing with vampires/fairies/etc., and so on


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

chrisanthropic said:


> John - I'm guessing it's the "product file type" setting. They don't detect what files you uploaded, you have to set it. Go to "update digital download files", select your book and check your "product file type". It probably says mobi. I changed mine to say "multiple formats" see if that works for you.


Yep! That did it! I can't believe I overlooked something so obvious.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

chrisanthropic said:


> Vaalingrade - I hope this helps with the organization of all of that -
> 
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqtiRUXa-oxmdGlEaFdkNno2dmZnVXYyd2QxVGVRMnc&usp=sharing
> 
> It's a google doc with everyone who was interested and their genre. Anyone can edit it, so if folks want to add the missing info it could help with creating the bundles. I added a price column there so we can list the price of the books on DriveThru so we can get a good idea of pricing the bundles.


My god, you are a wonderful human being!


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

I added a length column because I thought that might be useful info.


----------



## Guest (Nov 21, 2013)

I think we should differentiate between space opera and science fiction that doesn't take place in space.  I've been in a couple of sci-fi promos where half of the books were dystopian, which is a completely different thing.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Yeah, I re-categorized mine into Fantasy - Urban.

The only thing that makes mine sci-fi is the characters are all aliens. But the invasion took place thousands of years ago and the humans don't even know it. The aliens' tech reads more like magic than science, too.


----------



## Guest (Nov 21, 2013)

Well, if it's aliens ...

I dunno.  These genre boundaries can be so hard to figure out.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

John - I help when I can. Adventures? Not so much.



John Blackport said:


> Yep! That did it! I can't believe I overlooked something so obvious.


Yeah, I only know because I did the same thing yesterday when I set up all of our books.



Cherise Kelley said:


> I added a length column because I thought that might be useful info.


Good idea, I didn't even think about that. It'll be helpful for crafting the bundles.



Joe Vasicek said:


> These genre boundaries can be so hard to figure out.


My thought was to keep the division simple based on the 3 main categories offered by DriveThru (Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror). That gives us 3 bundles if we have enough and we can break them into more specific ones if the number of books requires it. Just a thought though.

Questions:

were dates ever picked for this?
do we want a cut-off for new entries so we can start organizing the bundles?
since most of us are new to adding our books we should all be getting free "promo" points to spend on DriveThru - should we pool them all to advertise the bundle?
are you sick of my questions yet?
I like lists, do you like lists?


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

were dates ever picked for this?

NO

do we want a cut-off for new entries so we can start organizing the bundles?

YES

since most of us are new to adding our books we should all be getting free "promo" points to spend on DriveThru - should we pool them all to advertise the bundle?

IF WE CAN

are you sick of my questions yet?

YES

I like lists, do you like lists?

NO


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

My original intention is doing this for the month of December.

Cut-off should bee soonish -- Saturday Noon (EDST)?


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Vaalingrade said:


> My original intention is doing this for the month of December.
> 
> Cut-off should bee soonish -- Saturday Noon (EDST)?


Sounds good of course since I already offered all of my books, and already have them all on DTF I might not be the fairest gatekeeper on timing.


----------



## Mackenzie Morgan (Dec 3, 2010)

I have two fantasies, but they are books 1 and 2 of a series. I listed the first one, The Master's Chair, on the google document. 

If they're in a bundle together, I can list The Dragon's Flame as well if we need it, but it's not a stand alone. They do need to be read in order.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Saturday sounds good to me.  Uploading books to DriveThru is quick and they appear damn near instantly so even those of us doing for the first time for this promo should be able to get it done.

Also, I organized the google doc by genre so we can start to get a view of what we've got.

So far it looks like this:

12 fantasy / 9 authors
10 sci-fi / 8 authors
2 steampunk / 2 authors
2 horror / 2 authors
2 unknown

If it stays like that I'd suggest tossing the steampunk in with fantasy and the horror with the sci-fi.  But I guess we'll need to wait and see what happens between now and Saturday eh?


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

chrisanthropic said:


> Saturday sounds good to me. Uploading books to DriveThru is quick and they appear d*mn near instantly so even those of us doing for the first time for this promo should be able to get it done.
> 
> Also, I organized the google doc by genre so we can start to get a view of what we've got.
> 
> ...


I only listed one book cause that seemed to make the most sense, especially since the fantasy bundle is the largest but all four of them are available for use if we want more.


----------



## Guest (Nov 22, 2013)

Wait, Saturday as in two days from now?  Is that when we're starting this thing?

Also, how are we going to figure out pricing?  I still need to figure out the logistics of this.  I assume when you submit a book to a bundle, there's a bunch of metadata it asks for including a dollar amount that is your portion of the total bundle price.  Or does it work differently?


----------



## S.P. van der Lee (Aug 5, 2013)

Hrrmm okay, guess I need to reactivate my book earlier then, since the original publication date is November 25th, but y'all want it up by 23rd ...


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

My title "Sky Hunter" comes out of Select on Dec 1 so I'd be interested in adding it to the space opera category, if I can still get in.


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Joe Vasicek said:


> Wait, Saturday as in two days from now? Is that when we're starting this thing?
> 
> Also, how are we going to figure out pricing? I still need to figure out the logistics of this. I assume when you submit a book to a bundle, there's a bunch of metadata it asks for including a dollar amount that is your portion of the total bundle price. Or does it work differently?


It's quite easy actually. You click on "Manage bundles" --> "Join multi publisher bundle" and enter the keyword. Then the screen asks you which book you want to add to the bundle. You choose a book from your list. Then it asks you for the price. You enter a (reduced) bundle price. That's all - no other metadata required, since you already entered it when you uploaded your book. The total price for the bundle (as well as the combined list prices) is then calculated. In the listing, it shows you the full list price and the reduced bundle price. Here is one of mine as an example for what it looks like.


----------



## Chris Momb (Oct 16, 2013)

I added one to the Sci-Fi / Space Opera category, but I'll understand if it is too short (13,000 words) for these purposes.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Joe Vasicek said:


> Wait, Saturday as in two days from now? Is that when we're starting this thing?


Saturday is when we close to submissions.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

I've got mine on the spreadsheet. I put one under "Fantasy" and another under "Fantasy/Steampunk", if the latter category works out as one of the options. Either of mine fit nicely into general Fantasy anyway.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Yeah, Joe, SP, and Quiss, don't freak out - Saturday is the cutoff for becoming part of our wonderful group, that's all.  That way we can see what we're working with and hammer out the details like genres, bundles, price, and dates.


----------



## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

chrisanthropic should be given a medal.

Sorry I'm not participating with the busy schedule, but I'll definitely be up for another bundle after the first of the year!


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Saul Tanpepper said:


> chrisanthropic should be given a medal.
> 
> Sorry I'm not participating with the busy schedule, but I'll definitely be up for another bundle after the first of the year!


You guys need to stop with that crap  - I have it easy since I'm not a writer - you guys are busy. Besides, I'm just helping out. But if this works out I'm definitely open to another. DriveThru is definitely our personal target market - we're gamers, comic fiends, and generally huge dorks. Plus she's got some comics in the works and some RPG work coming out soon too.


----------



## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

I added mine to the spreadsheet.  I was going to do two, but one is taking forever to go live on DriveThru, and I don't want to commit to something that may not come to pass.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

chrisanthropic said:


> Yeah, Joe, SP, and Quiss, don't freak out - Saturday is the cutoff for becoming part of our wonderful group, that's all. That way we can see what we're working with and hammer out the details like genres, bundles, price, and dates.


I changed my entry to Sky Hunter, which is more appropriate to DriveThrough's target audience.
However, the book isn't uploaded to DriveThrough yet. I was planning to do that next weekend. Does it have to be there before then? It comes out of Select on Dec 1st, but I will take the chance of Amazon getting snippy about things if it appears earlier elsewhere.


----------



## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

Alrighty. Now that I have an idea of what everyone else is entering, you can count me in for Sci Fi/Space Opera, with my title Nexus. Thanks for putting this together.


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

How long will this bundle be in effect? Shall I put in just Raingun, or all 3 of the books?


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Quiss said:


> I changed my entry to Sky Hunter, which is more appropriate to DriveThrough's target audience.
> However, the book isn't uploaded to DriveThrough yet. I was planning to do that next weekend. Does it have to be there before then? It comes out of Select on Dec 1st, but I will take the chance of Amazon getting snippy about things if it appears earlier elsewhere.


I'll be giving everyone the bundle code so they jump themselves in. So no worries about your time table.


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

Will we be getting private messages? 

Once we get that, we still have the question of who (if anyone) wants to do a banner . . .


----------



## S.P. van der Lee (Aug 5, 2013)

I've activated the book. Now all I need to do is wait for approval XD


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I had a lot of stuff to do yesterday. Weill sort through the entries today. It's very important that I get the names in today so I can create the bundles. If no one has any ideas, we will all have to suffer under my naming skills--and I named a book 'A Girl and Her Monster'--so none of us wants that.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Since nobody asked, here's my suggestions:

First, decide how we're going to bundle everything.
Second, decide on pricing of the bundles.
Third, name stuff.
Last, discuss banners and other advertising (pooling our promotion points to use on DriveThru, etc)

Looking at the Gdocs form, I recommend we bundle thusly (yeah, thusly):
1 entry per person per genre.
Bundle 1 - Fantasy / Steampunk (12 books)
Bundle 2 - Sci-Fi / Horror (11 books)

Or if we do multiple books per author we can do 
Bundle 1 - (15 books)
Bundle 2 - (13 books)

OR ... other ideas?

Other than that, if nobody better abled is available I can create a banner of some sorts provided we find good artwork for it (I can photoshop, I can't art)


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Wow, 15 books is a HUGE bundle!
How does the pricing work?  (Or should I be scrolling back a few pages...   )


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

My preference for pricing, which I'm sure is not a very popular one, is to take advantage of the Pay What You Want feature offered by DriveThru.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

The bundle system works by having you enter a discounted price for the book in question and adding that to the bundle's total price. We want to set a target price for the total bundle so no one throws if off by, say, only dropping a $6 book to $5 and driving the bundle price up much higher just on one book.

My two offerings are going to be free, so I'm not going to change the equation for us.

I suggest we shoot for $10-20, which with the 12 book bundle suggested would set bundled books between $.99 and $1.99 with room for a couple outliers. If anyone's got a $.99 book already, I've seen bundle discounts for those at $.50.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Vaalingrade said:


> The bundle system works by having you enter a discounted price for the book in question and adding that to the bundle's total price. We want to set a target price for the total bundle so no one throws if off by, say, only dropping a $6 book to $5 and driving the bundle price up much higher just on one book.
> 
> My two offerings are going to be free, so I'm not going to change the equation for us.
> 
> I suggest we shoot for $10-20, which with the 12 book bundle suggested would set bundled books between $.99 and $1.99 with room for a couple outliers. If anyone's got a $.99 book already, I've seen bundle discounts for those at $.50.


Ah, that makes sense.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Man, if it was just me, I would be all over the  'pay what you want' option like stink on a monkey... who is very stinky.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Vaalingrade said:


> Man, if it was just me, I would be all over the 'pay what you want' option like stink on a monkey... who is very stinky.


Yeah, I've actually set two of our books as pay-what-you-want. Depending on how this goes, I've got a brainstorming about a future PWYW promo on DriveThru.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

I vote for one book per author.

I think realistically we should either do pay what you want or 99 cents for the bundle. My objective is to get read and for people to buy my sequel. $20 for a bundle is way too much. Even $10 is too much, IMO.


----------



## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

Pay what you want. Totally up for that.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Cherise Kelley said:


> I vote for one book per author.
> 
> I think realistically we should either do pay what you want or 99 cents for the bundle. My objective is to get read and for people to buy my sequel. $20 for a bundle is way too much. Even $10 is too much, IMO.


Agreed. Given it looks like we have enough participants (and books) I can totally take one of mine out of the mix. The one I'll leave (The Five Elements) is a book one (with book two coming out next week), so I'm fine with the pay what you want option for pricing.


----------



## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

I've had good results with Pay What You Want elsewhere. Happy to try it here.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Awesome. So does anyone have an objection to Pay What You Want?


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Cherise Kelley said:


> I vote for one book per author.
> 
> I think realistically we should either do pay what you want or 99 cents for the bundle. My objective is to get read and for people to buy my sequel. $20 for a bundle is way too much. Even $10 is too much, IMO.


99 cent for a whole bundle may be common for backlist romance bundles on Amazon, but DriveThruFiction bundles typically cost more. For example, the big charity bundle last month cost 20 USD (donation) for a list price value of over 50 USD and that one got a lot of downloads. Another bundle I was part of cost approx. 13 USD.

Not a big fan of "Pay what you want" in general.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Let's have 4 bundles, then?

Sci-Fi named price
Fantasy named price

Sci-Fi pay what you want
Fantasy pay what you want


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

I added a column on the spreadsheet: Pay What You Want OK?


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Cherise Kelley said:


> I added a column on the spreadsheet: Pay What You Want OK?


I've got one in at 'Yes' and another at 'No'. If necessary because we have enough titles in its bundle, I can withdraw The Hall of the Wood, which I have down as 'no' for pay what you want.

The Five Elements is 'yes' for pay what you want.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Vaalingrade said:


> Awesome. So does anyone have an objection to Pay What You Want?


Works for me.
I'm also in favor of one book per author.


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

Hmmm . . . so is "Pay What You Want" a bad-review magnet, like free is?

Anybody had any experience with that? Erik? Cora? Vaal?

(I'd welcome an answer from anybody, really . . . I just listed a few of the people who have expressed opinions about PWYW. I've no experience with it)


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

Quiss said:


> I'm also in favor of one book per author.


I don't mind one book per author . . . how long will this promo be up? If we do one book per author, I'll probably do some kind of bundle with my series, and I'd like to space that out so it doesn't compete against this bundle


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I've never done PWYW. but it's usually good PR in the music world.

The bundle will run until New Years.


----------



## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

I'm down for pay what you want...but my opinion counts less since I'm offering a perma-free anyway, so my share of this is 0.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Looking at the sheet as it exists now, we have more than enough people for a Fantasy and a Sci-Fi PAYG bundle. (My Superhero book can go in Sci-Fi because that fits better than Fantasy no matter what Amazon says)

We only have two people confirmed on the sheet for a pay bundle.

There's also another question here: I'm not sure I can create a bundle that I don't have a book in.

I'm going to create the PAYG bundles tonight:

- Winter Break Fantasy Pack
- Winter Break Science Fiction and Horror Pack

I'm going to try and create paid bundles:

- Snwobound Reading Fantasy Collection
- Snowbound Reading Science Fiction and Horror Collection


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Awesome, sounds good.  Thanks for putting this together, lemme know if I can help at all.


----------



## Guest (Nov 26, 2013)

I still think we should do bundles of no more than 5 books, grouping like with like.  Personally, I'd rather not go with a "pay as you go" bundle for this one, and I definitely think we should price higher than $.99 (as Cora pointed out, that's not typical for this market).  Perhaps we could price them at $5 and call it a "five for $5!" sort of thing.


----------



## Mackenzie Morgan (Dec 3, 2010)

From what I understand, when we put a book in a bundle, we name a price for the book, and that's how the price of the bundle is determined. Then when the bundle sells, DriveThru credits each author according to the price the author set. (I could be wrong. I've only joined charity bundles before.)

How is that handled with pay what you want?


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Just seeing the updates now... I am toss a permafree in one bundle (or both?). Since it is permafree it really does not matter which bundle it is in.  I will toss book 2 in (list 3.99) in one or the other bundle, or both? 

I assume we want the bundles to have different books? So what if I put the permafree in the Pay What You Want and then both books in  the named price one? I would drop book 2 to something cheaper (50%? 1.99?) to make it work. 

That way the extra book adds to the perceived value of the PWYW bundle? A extra full length novel? 

That seem reasonable?


----------



## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

John Blackport--

Re: bad reviews and PWYW, I didn't see any correlation at all. I had more than 3,000 copies of my mysteries bought in a StoryBundle package and didn't see any that I could easily trace back to the bundle.

StoryBundle had a couple "bonus books" if you paid more than a certain amount to encourage higher average sales. Don't know if that's an option with DriveThru, but it worked pretty well there.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

As I suspected, you can't activate a bundle without having your own product in it. So someone else is going to have to create the Paid Bundles as they see fit.

I have to confirm that I can set my books as PWYW inside the bundle. Then again, I'm putting permafrees in, so...

Either way, passwords for the Winter Break packs will be going out in a couple of hours.

Joe, if you'd like to do the honors for your genre in paid, that'd be awesome.


----------



## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

DriveThru won't let me get into a bundle because I'm not "verified." My book is for sale ... what am I missing?


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

I added mine. So far, it looks like the bundle is free. There wasn't an option for pay what you want pricing.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

erikhanberg said:


> DriveThru won't let me get into a bundle because I'm not "verified." My book is for sale ... what am I missing?


Maybe tax or bank information?


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

erikhanberg said:


> DriveThru won't let me get into a bundle because I'm not "verified." My book is for sale ... what am I missing?


I have no idea. Did you just join?

Passwords are away. If you didn't get one, it's because you didn't answer 'yes' to PWYG on the google form, If you still want in, PM me and I will cheerfully send you the info.


----------



## S.P. van der Lee (Aug 5, 2013)

Hmm I'd prefer it to be paid too, seeing as I only have 1 book out as of yet


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Vaalingrade said:


> I suggest we shoot for $10-20, which with the 12 book bundle suggested would set bundled books between $.99 and $1.99 with room for a couple outliers. If anyone's got a $.99 book already, I've seen bundle discounts for those at $.50.


If we need someone else... I could setup the paid bundle for Fantasy or SciFi and toss 2 of my books in to seed it.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Vaalingrade said:


> Looking at the sheet as it exists now, we have more than enough people for a Fantasy and a Sci-Fi PAYG bundle. (My Superhero book can go in Sci-Fi because that fits better than Fantasy no matter what Amazon says)
> 
> We only have two people confirmed on the sheet for a pay bundle.
> 
> ...


After talking with Vaalingrade I created the Snowbound Reading Science Fiction and Horror Collection #4021 (and used the same password as he did on the PWYW bundle for scifi). I put 2 of my books in to seed it, but I see no option to set price or anything on the bundle as a whole. So I guess your on the honor system to set a price. My book is at 50%, and I would like to see others near that price to make this work. 

PM me or him for the password if you do not have it.


----------



## S.P. van der Lee (Aug 5, 2013)

Who's going to create the paid fantasy bundle then?


----------



## Aducknamedjoe (Apr 25, 2013)

I added my steampunk short to the PWYW fantasy bundle.

Also, I was worried about being "verified" too, but all you have to do is add a book and also add payment information, and a little bit later you'll be verified.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

S.P. van der Lee said:


> Who's going to create the paid fantasy bundle then?


No one's called it yet. If you wish to, go for it!


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Do we need a cover or something for these bundles?


----------



## SVD (Jan 15, 2013)

I am in the bundle.


----------



## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

I tried to join the bundle, but it's saying I can't until I am verified.  Does anyone know what that takes?


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Kathelm said:


> I tried to join the bundle, but it's saying I can't until I am verified. Does anyone know what that takes?


You need to have a book up and your payment information in their system.


----------



## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

> You need to have a book up and your payment information in their system.


Check and check. Anything else I can try?


----------



## Guest (Nov 27, 2013)

So I assume that the bars on the spreadsheet are for the different bundles?  If that's the case, I think it would be good to split it into two SF bundles, for those of us who have submitted more than one book.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

No idea. That's what someone up thread suggested. It might just take time to propagate.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Joe Vasicek said:


> So I assume that the bars on the spreadsheet are for the different bundles? If that's the case, I think it would be good to split it into two SF bundles, for those of us who have submitted more than one book.


The current SciFi bundle that Vaalingrade had me create has up to 2 books per author. How many where you thinking?


----------



## Guest (Nov 27, 2013)

I don't know.  But I do wonder if 12 novels is too much for a bundle.  Maybe if we capped at a certain aggregate word length or something ... I don't know.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Joe Vasicek said:


> I don't know. But I do wonder if 12 novels is too much for a bundle. Maybe if we capped at a certain aggregate word length or something ... I don't know.


Might be. Depends on the price really. If it is 12 books for $20 or less, then I think it would stand a chance of being scooped up. Heck I would be tempted


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

We haven't gotten to 12 books for either bundle.

We also already have two Sci-bundles: 4020 is the PWYW (though apparently we can't set it to that -_-) bundle and 4021 is the paid bundle.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Vaalingrade said:


> We haven't gotten to 12 books for either bundle.
> 
> We also already have two Sci-bundles: 4020 is the PWYW (though apparently we can't set it to that -_-) bundle and 4021 is the paid bundle.


I know it didn't let me set PWYW as an option (I set it to free) but I assumed it let you set it for PWYW when you set up the bundle, is that not the case? I know DriveThru has been used for PWYW bundles by others.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Maybe it will come up when I activate it.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Vaalingrade said:


> Maybe it will come up when I activate it.


Can always email their support too, I've emailed them twice for pretty stupid questions and they've gotten back to me in under 12 hours both times.


----------



## Guest (Nov 27, 2013)

The thing is, if it's that many stories in a bundle, it becomes "there are so many stories here that I have no idea what they're all about, but hey maybe a couple of them are good" instead of "I've read the description of all of these books, and two of them seem like books I'd really read, but that third one might be interesting in an experimental way, and that fourth one ..." In other words, if we have too many books in one bundle, it makes it more likely that the readers aren't going to read the book description for most of the books, and will subsequently forget about them.  If we have fewer books/stories and more bundles, though, with each bundle containing a similar theme or sub-genre, it's more likely that they'll read through the descriptions of all the books, and therefore remember and read them.

Also, the "bundle" only applies to the purchasing option, right?  The end-user will still download each individual file for sideloading / printing.  If the bundles are too large, they're more likely to just pick out the few that look good and not even bother downloading the rest.  It creates more work for the end-user.  If there's only five books in the bundle, though, it's more likely that they'd download them all because hey, I paid for all five of these, not just four.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

You make some very good arguments, but I can't help but wonder what's wrong with "there are so many stories here that I have no idea what they're all about, but hey maybe a couple of them are good". This is how I operate by default as a reader anyway. I see multi-author bundles and anthologies as a grab-bag that lets me sample a bunch of things at once on the cheap _without_ having to do my homework because the low cost reduces my risk.

It is something to keep in mind for the future, but we're a bit late in the game now. Next time I'll know more about organizing these kinds of things and will allow for enough time to do things like that. Like I said in the OP, this... is a learning experience and we'll see what kind of reception it gets and can recalibrate after a post-mortem.


----------



## Guest (Nov 27, 2013)

It's a concern I brought up from the very beginning.  Not sure how you missed that.

The problem with a reader picking up a huge bundle without looking at all the books in it is that the likelihood that they'll read any one of them is bound to go down.  From our perspective, that kind of defeats the purpose.  It's still a huge bargain to price five books for the price of one.

Does anyone have some actual data on the effectiveness of bundling, either for books or for other media such as video games?  Let's not jump into this blind, and make sure we're all actually on board here.  We are not "late in the game" yet--the holiday season is only just beginning.

ETA: if all else fails, we could divide it into bundles by length.  For shorter stuff like short stories and novellas, it's probably better to put more in a bundle, whereas for novels it would probably be better to have a smaller bundle.


----------



## S.P. van der Lee (Aug 5, 2013)

Vaalingrade said:


> No one's called it yet. If you wish to, go for it!


I can't. My account 'has not been verified' yet


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

When I sign into Drive Thru, how do I find the bundles to put books into them?


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Joe Vasicek said:


> The thing is, if it's that many stories in a bundle, it becomes "there are so many stories here that I have no idea what they're all about,


Ummm, Joe... If you feel there are too many books in the bundle, you could just remove one of your titles and only include one...


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

S.P. van der Lee said:


> I can't. My account 'has not been verified' yet


I'm seeing if I can create it now...


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

I created the Pay fantasy pack "Holiday Frosty Fantasy Pack". Bundle Id is 4035 and I've PM'ed the password to the 3 ppl who had a fantasy book on the spreadsheet indicating they wanted to go with the pay option. If I missed you, please PM me and I'll send you the info.

I already added my own book at 99 cents. I didn't know if we're shooting for some overall dollar figure or what.

Including myself, that's 4 participants or 4 books for this pack. Personally, I like the idea of smaller bundles so a potential buyer isn't overwhelmed and has a clearer sense of what they're buying. The PWYW bundle for fantasy has 6 titles. That's a good quantity, I think.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

John Blackport said:


> When I sign into Drive Thru, how do I find the bundles to put books into them?


At the bottom of the page, under TITLE MANAGEMENT, look for Manage Bundles. Then, enter the Bundle Id and password and you should be able to add your books.


----------



## Chris Momb (Oct 16, 2013)

I seem not to be "verified" either.

The "Manage Bundles" option has a lock symbol in front of it, and when you click it, it says, "This tool will be available to you once you have been verified." Several of the other links (Batch edit titles, Freelancer/Licensor royalty tools, etc...) are locked too with the same message.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

If they use humans to do the verification, and if these humans are based in the USA, they might have some staffing issues this week that could cause delays. Just a random guess.


----------



## Guest (Nov 27, 2013)

Quiss said:


> Ummm, Joe... If you feel there are too many books in the bundle, you could just remove one of your titles and only include one...


Or we could split this into multiple bundles instead of all piling up into one. When I submitted both books, I was under the impression that we weren't going to do that. Better yet, we could wait to make any hard and fast decisions until we're sure everyone is on the same page.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Are there even enough books in the Paid Sci-Fi bundle _to_ split it?

Considering how many people I PM'ed into the PWYW bundle, I don't know if the paid one is going to get enough to do a 5-5 split. If there are, feel free to start another Sci-Fi bundle for people who wanted multiple books in this, Joe.


----------



## Guest (Nov 27, 2013)

These communication issues, with the speed you guys are trying to push this through before we're all on the same page, is a red flag for me.  I'm pulling out.


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

I've put all three of my books into the paid bundle. 

Well --- have we really rushed through it? AFAIK the bundles aren't live (as in visible to DriveThru customers), they're still being constructed. I'm just learning how to do this --- I don't think I want to go into a PWYW bundle, but other than that I don't think anything's ruled out.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

John Blackport said:


> Well --- have we really rushed through it? AFAIK the bundles aren't live (as in visible to DriveThru customers), they're still being constructed. I'm just learning how to do this --- I don't think I want to go into a PWYW bundle, but other than that I don't think anything's ruled out.


This is correct, nothing is live to customers yet.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Sorry you feel that way, Joe.

I said on the first page that I don't really know what I'm doing here. It was a lark and something I'm doing to learn how to do this. I should have started this at the start of November in order to have a good, organized December 1 launch, and I should have had more of an idea than 'hey , let's see what other spec-fic authors are up for this'. I never expected so many people joining in and without things like chisanthropic's help, it probably would have crashed and burned pretty hard at the start.

Maybe next time, my organization will be better and you'll want to join in.

For everyone else, thanks for baring with me and for taking a shot on something like this with me


----------



## Guest (Nov 27, 2013)

I don't have a problem with you not knowing what you're doing, I have a problem with me not knowing what you're doing.  I've had some bad experiences with group promos when we weren't all on the same page, so I don't think it's worth the headache to proceed.

I am still interested in putting together a 5-pack spec-fic novel bundle on my own, though.  If anyone else is interested, feel free to PM me.


----------



## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

For those who aren't verified (like me) I got this response from DTRPG this morning when I asked for verification ...



> Thanks for your interest in setting up a bundle! As a relatively new publisher, you indeed aren't yet "verified": Generally, once you have published at least a couple products with us and have been selling them for at least a month, we will set your account status to verified (meaning we trust that you know our rules and you understand how to use our tools), and you will then be free to activate new products on your own and set up bundles, in addition to a few extra advanced tools on the publisher menu.


I've followed up and asked if they could manually add me to a bundle. We'll see. If I can get their help to get in, I'll be in, but otherwise I don't know if it's going to happen in time...


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Joe Vasicek said:


> I don't have a problem with you not knowing what you're doing, I have a problem with me not knowing what you're doing. I've had some bad experiences with group promos when we weren't all on the same page, so I don't think it's worth the headache to proceed.
> 
> I am still interested in putting together a 5-pack spec-fic novel bundle on my own, though. If anyone else is interested, feel free to PM me.


Understood. Again, hopefully, I'll be better organized next time. Good luck with your own bundle!



erikhanberg said:


> For those who aren't verified (like me) I got this response from DTRPG this morning when I asked for verification ...
> 
> I've followed up and asked if they could manually add me to a bundle. We'll see. If I can get their help to get in, I'll be in, but otherwise I don't know if it's going to happen in time...


Huh. I get not letting random new people make a bundle, but it seems weird that they won't let you jump into someone else's when they invited you.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

That is strange. I've only been up on the site for about a week and I was able to add myself to the bundle just fine. Those of you having issues, do you only have one book available on DriveThru? If so, from their language, it sounds like that could be the issue. It sounds like they want you to either have multiple products up _or_ have been using the site for over a month. That could explain why I was able to add my stuff.


----------



## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

> That is strange. I've only been up on the site for about a week and I was able to add myself to the bundle just fine. Those of you having issues, do you only have one book available on DriveThru? If so, from their language, it sounds like that could be the issue. It sounds like they want you to either have multiple products up or have been using the site for over a month. That could explain why I was able to add my stuff.


Yes, just the one book. None of the others would be appropriate for DriveThru.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

John Blackport said:


> I've put all three of my books into the paid bundle.


Unfortunately, IMO, this turns the bundle into a single author's bundle with a couple of extras from some others thrown in. Would you be willing to knock it down to just 1 book?

Otherwise I suppose I could throw in my shorts to help balance it out.


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

chrisanthropic said:


> That is strange. I've only been up on the site for about a week and I was able to add myself to the bundle just fine. Those of you having issues, do you only have one book available on DriveThru?


I had only one product (an mp3 audiobook), but it was up there since 2012


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

We're also going to need a cover image for each bundle. If we don't provide one, the product pages will look like this:

http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/84243/Mary-Tales-bundle-1-%5BBUNDLE%5D?SRC=FeaturedProduct&motds_id=7191&from_home=0&filters=0_0_44411_0_0

As opposed to a couple which have cover images tailored to their respective packages:

http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/121480/Madness-%26-Monsters?filters=0_0_44411_0_0

http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/120140/The-Ray-Cummings-Megapack-25-Golden-Age-Science-Fiction-and-Mystery-Tales?filters=0_0_44411_0_0


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

scottmarlowe said:


> Unfortunately, IMO, this turns the bundle into a single author's bundle with a couple of extras from some others thrown in. Would you be willing to knock it down to just 1 book?


Sure... May be tomorrow night before I get to it though


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

scottmarlowe said:


> We're also going to need a cover image for each bundle. If we don't provide one, the product pages will look like this:


Aww man. I didn't even see an option to add a cover.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

I can try to whip something up unless someone else is able and willing.  Like I said before, I'm ok with photoshop and I've made stuff for promos before, but I need some art to start with so I'll start digging soon.  I'm nearly done with the redesign of my wife's website so I'll have some more free time after that.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

I guess we need three covers? 2 sci fi, 1 fantasy?


----------



## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

Vaalingrade, did you ever get the PWYW worked out? Or is this going out free? I don't want free.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I sent I question in to support about that, so hopefully, I'll know soon. If I don't get an answer, just set your book to a discount price and it will add that price to the price of the bundle.

There ARE PWYW bundles on there, so it's possible, I just need to know how.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

I think we all need to set the same discount price. I suggest 50 cents.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Actually, no. I suggest 10 cents per 10,000 words as each person's discount price.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I might have spotted the problem before DTF gets back to me: PWYW, at least as of June of this year, was PDF only. I'm going to wait for guidance from DTF, but that might very well be the issue.

I checked and there's no option to set my stand-alone books to PWYW either.

Edit: It's also in BETA, so it might also only be available for select publishers.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

MeiLinMiranda said:


> Vaalingrade, did you ever get the PWYW worked out? Or is this going out free? I don't want free.


Me, either. I think the PWYW option may be a bust for me based on some of the comments above.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

John Blackport said:


> Sure... May be tomorrow night before I get to it though


Thanks. But let's see how the PWYW option pans out. I might be putting my PWYW title into the paid fantasy bundle if PWYW isn't something we can use.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Arg. Got the reply from DTF Re: PWYG:



> Greetings,
> 
> Unfortunately at this time we do not have a way to make Bundles as Pay
> What You Want, individual eBooks, yes, but not Bundles of multiple
> ...


So no PWYG. I'm going to second Cherise's suggestion of discounting to $.10 per 10,000 words or whatever you think s a fair discount. Sorry guys, should have looked into this before I leapt on the idea of PWYG.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Vaalingrade said:


> Arg. Got the reply from DTF Re: PWYG:
> 
> So no PWYG. I'm going to second Cherise's suggestion of discounting to $.10 per 10,000 words or whatever you think s a fair discount. Sorry guys, should have looked into this before I leapt on the idea of PWYG.


Do we still need two bundles then?


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

VydorScope said:


> Do we still need two bundles then?


Depends on how people feel. Two bundles keeps the numbers down and lets people promo more than one book per genre, after all.


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

OK ... I just put all 3 of my books into my own bundle. Now I'm going to double-check what's going on with the other bundles. 

EDIT AFTER CHECKING:

OK ... so: "Winter Break Fantasy Pack" (free): I'm not involved.

"Holiday Frost Fantasy Pack" (discounted): I've removed books 2 and 3, so only Book 1 (Raingun) is involved. 

I'd consider taking the Raingun e-book out, and adding the audiobook, if you'd like. I'm not sure it's a good idea, though. 

Does this help things, or hurt things?


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Vaalingrade said:


> Arg. Got the reply from DTF Re: PWYG:
> 
> So no PWYG. I'm going to second Cherise's suggestion of discounting to $.10 per 10,000 words or whatever you think s a fair discount. Sorry guys, should have looked into this before I leapt on the idea of PWYG.


I just went in to change mine to $.10 per 10,000 words, but everyone else's is still free, so I felt weird doing that and didn't. Are the rest of you going to change yours?


----------



## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

I discounted Machine God to 99 cents.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

John Blackport said:


> OK ... I just put all 3 of my books into my own bundle. Now I'm going to double-check what's going on with the other bundles.
> 
> EDIT AFTER CHECKING:
> 
> ...


I personally would be stoked with getting an audiobook on the cheap (because holy god are audio books usually expansive), but I too am not sure if regular customers would be cool with it.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

I've got mine at 99 cents now.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

There are only 2 titles assigned a price in the "Winter Break Fantasy Pack" bundle right now. The other titles are still at $0.00. Just sayin'.

The "Holiday Frosty Fantasy Pack" bundle looks like it's set. Four titles, price is $5.96.

This is the icon DriveThru assigns by default to bundles:


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Hi

Can someone please download (free) my Sky Hunter
http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/123172/Sky-Hunter

In the ePub version, please
The first time I downloaded it, it opened up empty. The second time it opened to chapter 3. 
Want to make sure it's good to go.
Thanks!


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Quiss said:


> Hi
> 
> Can someone please download (free) my Sky Hunter
> http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/123172/Sky-Hunter
> ...


The cover image is stretched in Sigil, but otherwise the content looks fine.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

scottmarlowe said:


> The cover image is stretched in Sigil, but otherwise the content looks fine.


Thanks!

There are just four titles in my bundle. Is that right?
Also, did we get cover images? I could whip something up. Not sure of dimensions for DriveThru, though.


----------



## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

So...what's going on with the former PWYW bundle? It's going live tomorrow...


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

scottmarlowe said:


> There are only 2 titles assigned a price in the "Winter Break Fantasy Pack" bundle right now. The other titles are still at $0.00. Just sayin'.
> 
> The "Holiday Frosty Fantasy Pack" bundle looks like it's set. Four titles, price is $5.96.
> 
> This is the icon DriveThru assigns by default to bundles:


I can't speak for the others, but my book in it is free normally, so I can't have any other price in the bundle.



MeiLinMiranda said:


> So...what's going on with the former PWYW bundle? It's going live tomorrow...


That's what Scott's talking about. Most of the books in the bundle are still free (IIRC, this will make the bundle 6 book for ~$1.80. If you and the other people still set to free are cool with that, it's all set. If you'd rather be part of the totally paid bundle (Frosty), you can switch to that without any trouble.


----------



## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

If the free bundle would rather be free, I'd like to switch bundles, then, please. I'll PM Scott.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Vaalingrade said:


> That's what Scott's talking about. Most of the books in the bundle are still free (IIRC, this will make the bundle 6 book for ~$1.80. If you and the other people still set to free are cool with that, it's all set. If you'd rather be part of the totally paid bundle (Frosty), you can switch to that without any trouble.


That's right. There are 2 fantasy bundles:

1. *Winter Break Fantasy Pack [BUNDLE]*: This was originally PWYW, but since that is not an option, two of us put our price at 99 cents. The other 4 books are still free.

2. *Holiday Frosty Fantasy Pack [BUNDLE]*: This was originally the Pay bundle for fantasy. Still is since everyone has a price listed, bringing the price for this bundle to $5.96.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

MeiLinMiranda said:


> If the free bundle would rather be free, I'd like to switch bundles, then, please. I'll PM Scott.


I sent you the info.

I also removed my book from the free pack and put it into the pay fantasy pack (I removed the title I had in there to keep it evened out at 1 title/author).


----------



## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

I added a short story to the free pack and moved The Machine God into the pay pack.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I still see only four titles in "Winter Break Sci-Fi and Horror Pack"

Am I in the right place? Where is everybody? Cora?


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Quiss said:


> I still see only four titles in "Winter Break Sci-Fi and Horror Pack"
> 
> Am I in the right place? Where is everybody? Cora?


That was orginally the PWYW bundle the other one is

Snowbound Reading Science Fiction and Horror Collection #4012 - same password which currently has 6 titles with a price of $5.97


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

VydorScope said:


> That was orginally the PWYW bundle the other one is
> 
> Snowbound Reading Science Fiction and Horror Collection #4012 - same password which currently has 6 titles with a price of $5.97


Am I supposed to be in that one (my book is free). It says there's no such bundle or bad password.


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

VydorScope accidentally got the bundle number mixed up. It's actually bundle #4021. I just accessed it and I can see it all right. It's currently got six books.

BTW, does anybody know where/if one can upload a bundle cover?


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

CoraBuhlert said:


> VydorScope accidentally got the bundle number mixed up. It's actually bundle #4021. I just accessed it and I can see it all right. It's currently got six books.
> 
> BTW, does anybody know where/if one can upload a bundle cover?


If you're the owner you can go to the product page and look for "edit this title". Also, as the owner, the bundle will show up in your list of products.


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

scottmarlowe said:


> If you're the owner you can go to the product page and look for "edit this title". Also, as the owner, the bundle will show up in your list of products.


I can edit my own bundles, but I can't find any place to upload a bundle cover. Well, I guess it's time to contact DriveThruFiction's customer service.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Quiss said:


> Am I supposed to be in that one (my book is free). It says there's no such bundle or bad password.


Sure if you want. One of my books is free and in it. 


CoraBuhlert said:


> VydorScope accidentally got the bundle number mixed up. It's actually bundle #4021. I just accessed it and I can see it all right. It's currently got six books.


Yeah.. what she said.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Yeah, I'm fine with the formerly "Pay What You Want" bundle being free.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

So am I.

Is everyone happy with where they are? I push the button on the Winter Break Bundles at midnight EDST, so let me know if you have other issues.

Again, sorry for the rockiness. Next time I do this, I'll be better at organizing.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

So we have a free and not free scifi bundle then right?


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Vaalingrade said:


> Is everyone happy with where they are? I push the button on the Winter Break Bundles at midnight EDST, so let me know if you have other issues.


Is there a cover? 
I've added my book to both bundles - let me know if that's not okay. It increased the "before" price of the bundle quite nicely and makes the sale look better.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Both Winter Break Packs are free now.

We don't have covers at the moment, but if someone would like to send me one, I'll put it up.

Quiss, do you mean you're in both free bundles or in both Sci-fi bundles?


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

PM Chrisanthropic about the covers, Vydorscope.

ETA:  Oops, I mean Vaalingrade!


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

PM Chrisanthropic about the covers, Vaalingrade. I believe Chris said he made some but was having trouble uploading them.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Cherise Kelley said:


> PM Chrisanthropic about the covers, Vydorscope.
> 
> ETA: Oops, I mean Vaalingrade!


I have one of the SciFi bundles, so I will PM him too.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Sorry I've been MIA today, had some unexpected stuffs to take care of.  I'm fine with my books where they are.

Regarding covers - I never heard back from people and bundles were still being discussed (price, participation, etc) so I never really started on them.

Let me look at what the final bundles look like and I'll get working on something.  Unless somebody else wants to jump in then we'll probably be coverless for the first day it goes live - sorry.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I can edit my own bundles, but I can't find any place to upload a bundle cover. Well, I guess it's time to contact DriveThruFiction's customer service.


It's not the "manage bundle" page, but an actual product edit screen accessible like any other product in your account.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Thanks a lot and no worries--you've helped so much already!


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Vaalingrade said:


> Quiss, do you mean you're in both free bundles or in both Sci-fi bundles?


In both sci-fi bundles, with my title set to free.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Vaalingrade said:


> So am I.
> 
> Is everyone happy with where they are? I push the button on the Winter Break Bundles at midnight EDST, so let me know if you have other issues.
> 
> Again, sorry for the rockiness. Next time I do this, I'll be better at organizing.


I'm good. We could use a cover for the fantasy pay bundle if anyone wants to take a stab at it. I would, but you don't want me working up covers. That's a recipe for disaster. 

I've got the fantasy pay bundle set to go live 12/1, so I assume it will just go active on its own. I'll double-check it in the morning.


----------



## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

I'm still unable to join the free bundle because I'm not verified.  Avast.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Sorry, Kathelm 

I didn't know the verification thing would be an issue for this when I made the announcement. I will, however, plug your book (and everyone else  who wasn't verified) on DTF when I make my post about the bundles.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Bundles are up! I'll be tweeting about them all day tomorrow.

*Winter Break Fantasy Pack*
http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/123029/Winter-Break-Fantasy-Pack-%5BBUNDLE%5D

*Winter Break Sci-Fi and Horror Pack*
http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/123031/Winter-Break-Sci-Fi-and-Horror-Pack-%5BBUNDLE%5D


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

scottmarlowe said:


> It's not the "manage bundle" page, but an actual product edit screen accessible like any other product in your account.


Ah, thanks.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Vaalingrade said:


> Bundles are up! I'll be tweeting about them all day tomorrow.
> 
> *Winter Break Fantasy Pack*
> http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/123029/Winter-Break-Fantasy-Pack-%5BBUNDLE%5D
> ...


So is

Snowbound Reading Science Fiction and Horror Collection #4021
http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/123037/Snowbound-Reading-Science-Fiction-and-Horror-Collection-%5BBUNDLE%5D


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

VydorScope said:


> So is
> 
> Snowbound Reading Science Fiction and Horror Collection #4021
> http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/123037/Snowbound-Reading-Science-Fiction-and-Horror-Collection-%5BBUNDLE%5D


The Holiday Frosty Fantasy Pack is active as well.

http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/123071/Holiday-Frosty-Fantasy-Pack-%5BBUNDLE%5D


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

When I click on the bundle I created for this experiment - it shows FREE to me, is that true for the rest of you that put books in the bundle?


It says it costs: $6.48 (Your price: $0.00)

Or is that just true for me since I am the bundle creator?


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

VydorScope said:


> When I click on the bundle I created for this experiment - it shows FREE to me, is that true for the rest of you that put books in the bundle?
> 
> It says it costs: $6.48 (Your price: $0.00)
> 
> Or is that just true for me since I am the bundle creator?


Just b/c you're the bundle creator.

I see:

$15.95 $6.48


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

If you edit the bundle's product page (not the bundle itself), you can add author names, categories, etc. just like a regular product.

I did this for the Frosty Fantasy Pack.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

scottmarlowe said:


> If you edit the bundle's product page (not the bundle itself), you can add author names, categories, etc. just like a regular product.
> 
> I did this for the Frosty Fantasy Pack.


Good idea! I added categories, I will add authors when I get home this afternoon.


----------



## Mackenzie Morgan (Dec 3, 2010)

scottmarlowe said:


> I did this for the Frosty Fantasy Pack.


Thanks for doing all the work on this one, Scott. I really do appreciate it.


----------



## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

> Sorry, Kathelm Sad
> 
> I didn't know the verification thing would be an issue for this when I made the announcement. I will, however, plug your book (and everyone else who wasn't verified) on DTF when I make my post about the bundles.


Thanks. It goes appreciated. I'll keep an eye on it, and if I can join before the bundle ends, I will. And hey, sometimes bundles benefit from late-joiners.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

scottmarlowe said:


> If you edit the bundle's product page (not the bundle itself), you can add author names, categories, etc. just like a regular product.
> 
> I did this for the Frosty Fantasy Pack.





VydorScope said:


> Good idea! I added categories, I will add authors when I get home this afternoon.


OK I got this done.

BTW Cora... your book on DriveThruFiction does not have your author name attacked to it. I had to pull it off your cover art. You might want to update that.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

The Winter Packs are now properly attributed.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Mackenzie Morgan said:


> Thanks for doing all the work on this one, Scott. I really do appreciate it.


Your welcome.  Hopefully we all sell a book or two.


----------



## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

Scott, do you get sales notifications or do we get them individually?


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

MeiLinMiranda said:


> Scott, do you get sales notifications or do we get them individually?


In my "product page" I see the bundle listed as if it was one of my books. It currently says 24 visits, but "no sales." I could go "buy" the free bundle and then we could see what happens?


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

When you look at the bundle, it looks like people have a choice as to which books they want, rather than downloading them all at once. Am I looking at this right?

I had one email today informing me that someone has downloaded my title, but it did not specify if that was for the bundle or just from my regular book listing.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Quiss said:


> When you look at the bundle, it looks like people have a choice as to which books they want, rather than downloading them all at once. Am I looking at this right?
> 
> I had one email today informing me that someone has downloaded my title, but it did not specify if that was for the bundle or just from my regular book listing.


When you buy the bundle, you are given separate links to get each book individually. It says as much on the bundle page.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

I don't know the answers to any of these questions, but I am working on bundle images - promise!

Like I said, I'm no artist so I'm looking for decent images to use that are also Creative Commons and ok with derivitives...takes a bit.

I think I might have one for the fantasy bundle, waiting for an email from the artist to make sure she's ok with me using the dragon.

What do you guys think? Should I bother with that one or go for something completely different?


----------



## Mackenzie Morgan (Dec 3, 2010)

I'm not in that bundle, and all I know about covers is what I like, but I do like that one. Looks good to me.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Here's what I've got for the free Sci-Fi bundle.










I'm open to criticisms, feedback, and/or rejections. I know I'm not the best at these, but I wanted to get something together.
Keep this one? Tweak this one? Dump this one? Thoughts?


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

I think they both will work... esply for the price


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

VydorScope said:


> I think they both will work... esply for the price


Hey, I'm worth every cent 

Depending on what people decide, the Sci-Fi one can go up anytime but the fantasy one needs to wait until I hear back from the artist.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

chrisanthropic said:


> I don't know the answers to any of these questions, but I am working on bundle images - promise!
> 
> Like I said, I'm no artist so I'm looking for decent images to use that are also Creative Commons and ok with derivitives...takes a bit.
> 
> ...


I love it. Awesome work!


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Works for me!  That's very nice work at such short notice.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

I think both covers are great, Chris! We need 4, though. One paid and one free each in Sci-Fi and Fantasy.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

MeiLinMiranda said:


> Scott, do you get sales notifications or do we get them individually?


I might get a notification on the bundle, but I would think we'd each get an email for our individual books.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Cherise Kelley said:


> I think both covers are great, Chris! We need 4, though. One paid and one free each in Sci-Fi and Fantasy.


Not sure what I'll be able to do for the paid ones since I don't have access to any of the stock art sites and most Creative Commons artwork is non-commercial so not usable for this. In other words, I'll need access to artwork that we can legally use for free.

I'm working on a tweaked free fantasy one while we wait to hear back/in case she says no.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Ok, the dragon artist got back to me and gave permission to use the image for the free bundle - if there's somewhere on DriveThru to credit her she said that'd be cool but she's fine with it if we can't.

Here's an image for the paid fantasy one - I'm 99% sure we're legal with the use of images, but just because a site says something is CC or Public Domain doesn't mean it is...I do a lot of research into verifying these things, but still it can be a possibility.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

chrisanthropic said:


> Ok, the dragon artist got back to me and gave permission to use the image for the free bundle - if there's somewhere on DriveThru to credit her she said that'd be cool but she's fine with it if we can't.
> 
> Here's an image for the paid fantasy one - I'm 99% sure we're legal with the use of images, but just because a site says something is CC or Public Domain doesn't mean it is...I do a lot of research into verifying these things, but still it can be a possibility.


That looks fantastic. Thanks for working on this.

I'm going to get it uploaded now...


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Ok, I don't remember who's in charge of the paid sci-fi/horror bundle, but if you want an image here's what I've got for you.










With that, I'm done. Anybody figured out sales notification for this stuff yet?


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

chrisanthropic said:


> Ok, I don't remember who's in charge of the paid sci-fi/horror bundle, but if you want an image here's what I've got for you.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That would be me. I will get that up when i get back to my desk


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

VydorScope said:


> OK I got this done.
> 
> BTW Cora... your book on DriveThruFiction does not have your author name attacked to it. I had to pull it off your cover art. You might want to update that.


Thanks for the info, Vydor.

The covers look great, Chris.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

chrisanthropic said:


> Ok, the dragon artist got back to me and gave permission to use the image for the free bundle - if there's somewhere on DriveThru to credit her she said that'd be cool but she's fine with it if we can't.
> 
> Here's an image for the paid fantasy one - I'm 99% sure we're legal with the use of images, but just because a site says something is CC or Public Domain doesn't mean it is...I do a lot of research into verifying these things, but still it can be a possibility.


There is a field for "Artist" that we could use for that? I am not sure what it is intended for?


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

chrisanthropic said:


> Ok, I don't remember who's in charge of the paid sci-fi/horror bundle, but if you want an image here's what I've got for you.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Okay this is up now.


----------



## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

Really wish the whole "verification" thing could have been worked out with DriveThru. I would have loved to have my book in there! Those covers look great.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Finally got back to KB.

Covers look awesome. And there IS a place to credit the artist. just let me know her name and I'll put it into the bundle's metadata.


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

I just "purchased" the two free bundles, so anyone who has a book in one of them should be getting a sales notification soon.

Also plugged all bundles on my blog as well as via Google+ and Pinterest.


----------



## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

Were the codes for the bundles ever distributed? I've been keeping an eye out for an email or PM, but haven't received that info, to put Nexus in.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

NicWilson said:


> Were the codes for the bundles ever distributed? I've been keeping an eye out for an email or PM, but haven't received that info, to put Nexus in.


Which bundle did you want in on? [Free/Paid | Fantasy/Sci-Fi & Horror] We can hook you up pretty quickly.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

I got a sales notification!

OK, now how and when do each of us use our promotion credits to promote our bundle?


----------



## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

I got a sales notification that was for the free fantasy bundle.


----------



## chrisanthropic (May 28, 2011)

Vaalingrade - I'll get the artist attribution details tomorrow.  Have you added the images to the bundles yet?


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Images are added now. I'd been away from the computer for a bit.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I just "purchased" the two free bundles, so anyone who has a book in one of them should be getting a sales notification soon.
> 
> Also plugged all bundles on my blog as well as via Google+ and Pinterest.


Did you purchase "Winter Break Sci-Fi and Horror Pack" ? I am in that but did not get a notification of any kind.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I received four notifications overnight.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Quiss said:


> I received four notifications overnight.


Huh. I wonder if I have them turned off or something.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

VydorScope said:


> Huh. I wonder if I have them turned off or something.


They might not send notifications for downloads by the author? 
I received five sales notifications so far in total but when I run a report, it shows 8 downloads. I know three were done yesterday when I asked her for someone to check to make sure my epub was opening correctly.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I think you have to turn notifications on. I just go here:

http://www.drivethrufiction.com/pub_sales_report.php


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

VydorScope said:


> Did you purchase "Winter Break Sci-Fi and Horror Pack" ? I am in that but did not get a notification of any kind.


I purchased both free bundles, including a story by you.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I purchased both free bundles, including a story by you.


Which of course is the BEST story of the lot, right?


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Looks like DTF is having some web server issues. Getting:

Apache 2 Test Page
powered by CentOS


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

scottmarlowe said:


> Looks like DTF is having some web server issues. Getting:
> 
> Apache 2 Test Page
> powered by CentOS


Working here...


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

VydorScope said:


> Working here...


Looks like it's back now. It was down for a while a couple of weeks ago as well.


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

VydorScope said:


> Which of course is the BEST story of the lot, right?


I'm certain it is, though I can't be sure, because I didn't get around to reading it yet.


----------



## Aducknamedjoe (Apr 25, 2013)

> Insert Quote
> I think you have to turn notifications on. I just go here:
> 
> http://www.drivethrufiction.com/pub_sales_report.php


I'm not seeing the option on that page to turn on notifications, just DL a report? (which shows 2 sold).


----------



## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

Vaalingrade said:


> Which bundle did you want in on? [Free/Paid | Fantasy/Sci-Fi & Horror] We can hook you up pretty quickly.


I thought I volunteered Nexus for the Scifi category. My memory's a bit fuzzy, though. NaNo whupped me.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

NicWilson said:


> I thought I volunteered Nexus for the Scifi category. My memory's a bit fuzzy, though. NaNo whupped me.


Free or not free?


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

Cherise Kelley said:


> I got a sales notification!
> 
> OK, now how and when do each of us use our promotion credits to promote our bundle?


I pasted this from Drivethru. Some of this was news to me, since I'm only interested in running banner -- I'm trying to get one done at fiverr.

PPP can currently be used to:

Run a Featured Product message on the homepage or category pages.
Run banners at the bottom of site pages.
Send email to customers with your products in their wishlists and shopping carts.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

NicWilson said:


> I thought I volunteered Nexus for the Scifi category. My memory's a bit fuzzy, though. NaNo whupped me.


We split each genre up between free and paid later in the thread. Just post which one you want to be part of and the appropriate person will send you the password.


----------



## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

Whichever bundle seems a little more space opera friendly is fine by me. I don't really care about any royalties, but I don't want to hijack a bundle that's more skewed to scifi/horror. Thanks.


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Has anybody reported the free bundles to SF Signal's daily listing of free SFFH fiction? They have plugged DriveThruFiction bundles before. e.g. the charity bundle of a few months ago, so it might be worth a try.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

CoraBuhlert said:


> Has anybody reported the free bundles to SF Signal's daily listing of free SFFH fiction? They have plugged DriveThruFiction bundles before. e.g. the charity bundle of a few months ago, so it might be worth a try.


I don't know what this is, but it sounds good, so I say please do report the free bundles to them, Cora!


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Cherise Kelley said:


> I don't know what this is, but it sounds good, so I say please do report the free bundles to them, Cora!


+1!


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Will do.


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

I just informed SF Signal, which is a popular and Hugo winning SFF website, about the two free bundles.

SF Signal's free book submission form is here BTW, in case anybody has an SF, fantasy or horror book going free. Though many of you probably know about this already, since I frequently see KBers books listed there.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Thanks, Cora!

SFSignal is a great info site with a great group of people running the show over there. I always see a bump of some sort whenever they feature one of my books, free or not.


----------



## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

So, this is awkward and five days late, but ...

DriveThru emailed me today and said they would be willing to manually put me in a bundle. Is there still a PWYW bundle? Could I jump in on that somehow? Anyone object?


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

erikhanberg said:


> So, this is awkward and five days late, but ...
> 
> DriveThru emailed me today and said they would be willing to manually put me in a bundle. Is there still a PWYW bundle? Could I jump in on that somehow? Anyone object?


There is a FREE and a PAID one. It turns out that the PWYW is not possible


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I have no objections to you jumping into #4020 a bit late.

BTW, everyone, if you want to set your own individual books to PWYW, I figured out how to do it: in the file manager, select PWYW from the formats dropdown. I have no idea why it works like this.


----------



## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

Which one is 4020? 

I don't want to jump in if it will throw things off for other authors.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

erikhanberg said:


> Which one is 4020?
> 
> I don't want to jump in if it will throw things off for other authors.


4020 is the FREE one. 4021 is the PAID one. The paid one I do not think has sold any copies yet - so you can hop into that with out harming anything. They both have the same password.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I did send you the pw, yes?


----------



## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

erikhanberg said:


> So, this is awkward and five days late, but ...
> 
> DriveThru emailed me today and said they would be willing to manually put me in a bundle. Is there still a PWYW bundle? Could I jump in on that somehow? Anyone object?


Absolutely no objection here. Indeed, the more the merrier


----------



## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

I've asked to be placed in the free bundle. The paid bundle would have been awkward for price changes, etc. Thanks all!


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I just informed SF Signal, which is a popular and Hugo winning SFF website, about the two free bundles.
> 
> SF Signal's free book submission form is here BTW, in case anybody has an SF, fantasy or horror book going free. Though many of you probably know about this already, since I frequently see KBers books listed there.


Our free bundle is up!

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2013/12/free-sf-fantasy-and-horror-fiction-for-12112013/


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Just got two purchase notifications this morning.


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

DLs of the free bundle spiked nicely already.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Yes! The "purchase" notifications keep coming, "ding, ding, ding, like Vegas!" 

(Quote courtesy of Deanna Chase)


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Yep! Hopefully this will mean our names get known in that market place


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Month's end has come, folks. There's a few days left, but so far the results are modest:

The Winter Break Fantasy Pack got 10 DL's while the Sci-Fi/Horror Pack got 29. Not big numbers, but I think it was a good first effort considering my poor coordination.

I think it works best as a proof of concept though. One, it got a lot more of us on a new platform where I hope we'll all see some success. Two, it got us working together and communicating. I've said before that I feel that the self-pub industry can learn a lot from the webcomic industry and the big thing that lifted weccomics up was the formation of communities and guilds among the creators like the rise of Blank Label Press.

This isn't a sales pitch on anything, just an idea that maybe we should do things among ourselves more often after this and maybe we'll help each other to bigger success in the future.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Thanks for organizing this.  It's been interesting to figure out how that works over there.
In total, I've moved 45 of my permafree over there this month. Very modest, compared to Amazon and Smashwords, but still better than Kobo!


----------



## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

I didn't get any notifications of the freebies and one notification of a paid, but that's one more than Kobo gave me this month and ties with B&N.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

The numbers were modest, but it was a good learning experience.

I noticed some other indie authors banned together to put this bundle together on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Myth-Majesty-Fantasy-Novels-ebook/dp/B00HG2KNE8

Amazon obviously has a lot of advantages over the little guys like DTF. I wonder...who'd be interested in bundling on Amazon?

I have no idea how this would work from a logistical standpoint. Since Amazon doesn't provide the tools to bundle, it would have to be done manually. Reporting, etc. would be under a single person's account, I guess.

I'm not too enamored of the 99 cent price point for 'x' number of novels (in this case, 7). I thought we'd already undervalued our work enough with 99 cent and free price points for just a single novel. Guess it's the next big thing, as I'm seeing it more and more.

I'm just thinking out loud on this (for now).


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

A few people contacted me while we were setting this up to talk about doing one on Amazon. The big problem is in the reporting and profit sharing. as well as tax issues. I might know someone who might be willing to take care of the business issues involved for such a thing, but the major issue with that is trust. The contributors need to REALLY trust the person whose account is offering the bundle.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

I am interested in doing an Amazon bundle.

99 cents for up to six books is OK with me. This is the new permafree, is the way I see it. I would do it just for the exposure, not to see any money from the bundle. In my opinion, all the money the bundle makes should go into advertising the bundle.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Should I kill the paid bundle on DTF at some point?


----------



## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I'm powering down the free bundles Jan 1.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Vaalingrade said:


> I'm powering down the free bundles Jan 1.


Sounds good I will do the same.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

VydorScope said:


> Sounds good I will do the same.


I'll get the one fantasy bundle I "own" taken care of then as well.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Vaalingrade said:


> A few people contacted me while we were setting this up to talk about doing one on Amazon. The big problem is in the reporting and profit sharing. as well as tax issues. I might know someone who might be willing to take care of the business issues involved for such a thing, but the major issue with that is trust. The contributors need to REALLY trust the person whose account is offering the bundle.


Yes, trust is the big one. I don't think I'd do a bundle with other authors unless I knew them personally or if Amazon provided DTF-like tools to set the bundle up. It's too bad they don't have such a setup. I think a lot of authors would take advantage of it.


----------

