Thursday, January 21, 2016

THOR'S DAY RANT: The Box is a Lie

So, there's been this trend the past few years in the self-publishing circles that now seems to have become cannon. You know, like how we call all tissues Kleenex. I'm talking about "box sets".

What, praytell, am I talking about? I'm talking about ebooks being offered in bundles online. For example, let's say there's five e-novels in the Lacy Underwere, Monster Hunter Series. Rather than buy Book 1-5 individually to get your pantied paranormal prose on, you can buy all five books at once: as a "box set"--downloaded to your Kindle...

Okay, so I'm going to come off as a grammar nazi here, but if you aren't selling anything physical, it is NOT a box set. It's a compilation. Or an Omnibus. There is no box. Even if GLaDOS didn't write this one, THE BOX IS A LIE. 

I have wondered for over a year how this inaccurate description has become so widespread. Were the women writing all the femme fatale fiction not well-versed in reading? Had they never head of an Omnibus? Did they think "compilation" was a fancy word for mix-tape? Or were these scheming scribblers out to hornswaggle their customers, categorizing their readers as unable to comprehend the correct term for such a package deal?

In any event, it drives me bonkers every time I read authors bragging about their new "box set". I remember when Star Wars came out on VHS in a box set. Or Indiana Jones. THOSE were box sets. I don't think I've ever purchased books on a boxed set. Generally, books come out with huge gaps of time between them. I mean, who on earth is going to risk all that money on a whole set of books they've never read before. And if you have read them, why do you need a non-existent Box to virtually hold them? With movies, at least there's new versions, like classic Han-shot-first, or maybe re-master animorphic surround sound. 

Pffooey. "Box set" is just another deceitful marketing term, like "less filling" or "kid approved". My fellow authors, I implore you to stick to tradition and call those collections Omnibuses! 

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