It’s fair to assume that most and perhaps all the readers of this blog post are writers. We may not like marketing but we recognize its importance. In this post, I want to write to you about the importance of bundling in your marketing efforts.

You—and I—ought to be always asking ourselves about how

• to reach an audience of readers, a larger audience.
• to find an audience of buyers who are willing to invest in us.

Our books won’t attract attention without being out in the world to actively garner that attention.

One way to garner attention is marketing, but another way is to write a series that can be bundled.

We would all love to have our books marketed successfully by someone else. But, it’s not going go happen—or at least for more of us.

As we are writing our first book—let’s call it Book A, we can help our marketing along by thinking of Book B which will follow Book A.

If readers like Book A, and Book B is generally on the same topic and theme or uses some of the same characters and actions, then it is safe to assume readers who loved Book A will  like Book B. This facilitates marketing.

In this post, I want to write about how and why to plan book bundles. The importance of bundling seems obvious.

Books can be bundled.

Over time, I have noticed that, for every four French Boys (my childhood memoir) we sold, there was almost always one We Were Not Spoiled (my mother’s memoir) that went out also.

That pattern has been more or less steady now for two years. Since most of our books are sold on Amazon (unfortunately!), the pattern is easy enough to see in their reports. The two books would often be sold on the same day—pointing possibly to one buyer for both titles.

This supports the importance of bundling. If people like Book A, they are likely to like Book B.

In view of this, it makes sense for us at The Memoir Network to package French Boy and We Were Not Spoiled into a bundle. It seems to be what people want. (Perhaps this bundling could increase the ratio of sales from four to one to three to one. We don’t know. We are just starting active bundling.)

We can’t do this bundling easily on Amazon but we can on our site.

A look at genre writing points to the importance of bundling.

If you are a one-time and only-time writer, this post has less to offer you than it can offer the writer who would appreciate writing a second and third book.

Let’s take a side view of genre writing where there’s  a general understanding that books in series sell more easily than a whole lot of separate books that have no topical or thematic links.

Romantasy (a romance/fantasy mix) writers know this well. Once they establish a character, they exploit her/him for five to ten books. One sells the other. Marketing is reduced. Of course, you announce forthcoming books and previous books in each title. Book A tells the reader about Book B, and Book B reminds the reader that there is a Book A.

My French Boy has a sequel in the making. It is called My Nineteenth Century Life and covers my high school years in a minor seminary. It is safe to  imagine that people who enjoyed French Boy will wonder what happened to me (the character of the memoir) as I mention at the end of the book that I am going to the minor seminary the next fall. Many readers will want to get a copy of My Nineteenth Century Life.

Bundles are sales but not temporary ones.

While interested readers may buy your sequel regardless of how it is packaged, chances are that you can heighten the possibility of a sale by offering a discount for a bundle of several books. Bundles thrive as a series of books at a price lesser that the addition of the prices of all the books separately.

As such, they are certainly a sale, but the sale is permanent. Ordinarily, a sale is only for a period of time. Bundles will sell at a reduced rate as long as the grouping of books is maintained.

What kind of writer are you?

Some people reading this are one-time-and-only-time writers. Once that one book is done, they hang up their writing. That’s it.

Others reading this post, however, are interested in pursuing some longer focus on writing—even a career.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if I could be a real writer!”

You can do it. Start right now to think of turning a long memoir into two shorter books. Where does one story line in the book end naturally what could be the first book  and the rest of your manuscript can become the second book.

One coaching client took a 400-plus-page manuscript, and  by splitting it and adding some text, created a 275-page book and another 175-page sequel. To see these books on Amazon, click here and here. You will also notice that he has added a third book to his bundle.

Chances are you have the same possibility staring you in the face right now.

Plan to bundle books into your writing wish list.

My own journey led to the importance of bundling.

I have to admit that I did not start to write a series, nor are the bundles I am linking to a series. They are, however, thematically related books.

I have written several novellas that are very near completion. They are definitely a series, and I will sell them both individually and in a bundle.

Most recently, I have created four bundles—each offering a different combination of three titles.

I was unable to find a point in either French Boy or Here to Stay where I might have divided either book into two. In both cases. a break just didn’t work. But, I did bundle the books.

These books make a fine Holiday gift for family and friends—and yourself.

In conclusion

Planning on a series of books is a great way to shore up your life as a writer.

Check out how we did our own bundling.