How Masquerade MegaPacks Will Work
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Details here.
Details here.
What's been stated
Multiple author boxed sets do really well, so I would like to put collections of novels together in one anthology as a way to promote indies. As long as the grammar is OK, any book from the genre we are looking for will be accepted. There will be no fee to join a collection. The authors will not earn any royalties; instead, royalties earned will be my fee.
Now, for more clarification
There is a lot of information to follow and any of it is subject to change with notice (via blog post or email newsletter).
The other post stated that authors would be giving me permission to sell their novel in the MegaPack for a period of probably six months.
But what happens to the collection after that?
Since I am not interested at this point in dealing with handling royalties to be distributed to the authors, the most likely course of action would be to take the collection off of Amazon. This is what I've seen other multiple author anthologies do.
There is one other possibility, which I'll mention later.
Why six months?
Being a part of a collection will mean FREE promotion!
I would like to have plenty of time to generate not only revenue for myself but also funds for blog tours and other forms of paid advertisement. I would entertain a shorter period, but remember: the more money I make, the more I'll be willing to throw at the anthology, which means free promotion for the participating authors.In that case, what if some of the authors would like to extend the promotional period?
I will only extend a promotion period if ALL of the authors agree. Also, I will not cut and paste a collection once it's out, so interested authors would have to join a new collection.
I would like to eventually have permanent collections that I continue to promote for the foreseeable future. Think of it as putting your book up for free permanently (as many authors do). However, instead of just putting your book up by itself, you'll be putting it up alongside others. The collection will still be generating funds, some of which can be used to promote the collection and other works of the participating authors.
Since it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that an author will change their mind later, even permanent collections won't be completely permanent. Not quite sure how I want to handle this. It will take more research and opinions from our author fans.
Let me know what you think.
What about copyright?
Copyright will stay with the authors. No need for complicated contracts. The authors can continue to sell their book apart from me. However, on a related note, I won't be able to accept any book enrolled in the Kindle Select program.
How the process will work
(before publication and after)
After an author expresses interest by filling out a form (such as the one at the bottom of this post), I will look over the book on Amazon to make sure it meets the criteria. I'll let the author know, and they will send the complete book to me. I will format the book and add it to the collection along with the others accepted. No editing services will be offered.
Not quite sure how additional material will be handled. A short bio of each author is a give in, but previews of other novels and other material may be accepted.
I will pay for a book cover. Most likely an inexpensive but good-looking premade cover, unless someone would like to volunteer to put a custom cover together. As long as their fee isn't outrageous, I don't mind paying for it once royalties come in. A down payment will be part of the agreement.
Once a collection is published, it will receive heavy promotion on this site. Diantha will most likely organize a blog tour through Masquerade Book Tours. We haven't completely discussed how and when this would happen.
As far as material on this site, guest posts, promos of individual books (in and out of the collection), book reviews of the books in the collection, and so forth will be used to promote the collection, along with more tweets than can be numbered and probably an email newsletter or two.
Our review crew will be used to offer book reviews of individual books in the collection. These reviews will be posted to Amazon for the collection and for the book itself.
The authors will be encouraged to promote the collection themselves: on their blog, via social media ... etc. The collection will probably be on sale for 99¢ during part of its run, though I will play with price to maximize revenue and available advertising funds.
The authors and their fans will be encouraged to buy a copy (especially at the 99¢ price), extending the collection's popularity and reach on Amazon. I will be buying a copy, of course. Actually I will probably buy a copy as soon as it goes to 99¢, which might be as soon as it gets published ... or not. Time will tell.
Sometimes you gotta spend money to make money. I understand that principle.
Once there are enough funds to advertise, third party blog tours will be used. Other forms of advertising may be explored based upon how much money is available.Haven't decided how I will split the royalty between my income and advertising funds. It may depend on how much money is made overall combined with a percentage. I would like to say 50% split will make sense, but if not enough money is present to pay for my time, a different percentage will apply. If the success of other anthologies is any indication, I may be hunting for ways to promote it, having plenty of money to spread around.
I think this post is long enough ... probably too long. If you have any questions, leave a comment or send me an email.
MSL_007@LIVE.COM
