It's the first Wednesday of the month, so you know what that means. It's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group created by the awesome ninja leader Alex J. Cavanaugh. For a list of participants, click here.
Well, I have a dilemma and could use some advice.
The good and bad thing about having a publisher is that they make all the decisions for your book. The good and bad thing about self-publishing is that you make all the decisions for your book.
This involves Gravity: The Complete Trilogy. I'm working hard to format my Defying Gravity, Fighting Gravity, and Pull of Gravity together with added epilogues into a print book. (The epilogues were originally added for further incentive to purchase the collection and to move the book's length to over the 50k word mark.) I want to offer an ebook copy to every person who buys a print book (instructions would be on a page near the back on how to get a free copy). I plan to create a special email address for that and have the ebook up on Smashwords, so I can create coupon codes for people who purchase a print book and want to have the ebook for themselves or for a friend.
My dilemma comes whether or not to publish the ebook (Gravity: The Complete Trilogy) elsewhere. Should I leave the individual ebooks as is and publish the complete trilogy on Amazon, Nook, Kobo, etc., so people can decide whether they want to purchase the books individually without epilogues or the complete collection with the epilogues? Or should I add the epilogues to the individual ebooks and have the collection up on Smashwords only and the print book on Amazon, CreateSpace, Barnes and Noble, etc.? Or my third option: add epilogues to individual ebooks and have the complete collection up everywhere too in ebook and print formats? There is also a forth option of taking down the individual ebooks and just having Gravity: The Complete Trilogy out, but I don't think that's necessary and I'm not really considering that option.
I am also considering putting Defying Gravity for free and raise the prices of Fighting Gravity and Pull of Gravity, so they're the same price as the entire collection.
Although it's time consuming, I'm not worried about formatting for each of those circumstances. I'm just trying to think what the reader would like best. Would a reader be upset to buy the individual ebooks and not get the epilogues? Or would a reader take the free Defying Gravity book (if I make it free) and then purchase the collection?
I do plan to put out a call for those who have purchased the three individual ebooks to get the free ebook collection, if they want. I want people to have access to the epilogues without having to purchase the entire book, if they've already bought the individual stories.
As you can see, I have many decisions and would enjoy hearing your advice.
What are your writing concerns?
