In this article, we'll show you how you can use Leanpub's "Packages" feature to give customers an option to buy multiple copies of your books and courses at a discount.

Yes, people can already buy multiple copies of Leanpub books and courses, by just selecting a number of copies at checkout! This is actually a really popular feature with Leanpub readers, which we explain to them in our Reader Help Center here and in a video here.

However, nudging people to buy multiple copies by creating a multiple-copy package can still help you increase your sales, both by surfacing this option to people more clearly, and by indicating it's a discount bulk purchase.

Here's a screenshot from a real-world example of a Leanpub author using this feature:

This is actually an old convention in the ebook business; for example, Peter did it back in 2006 with his first independently self-published in-progress ebook, when he sold an "Individual Edition" (one copy), a "Team Edition" (five copies), and a "Department Edition" (ten copies). (If you're interested in learning more about Leanpub's origins, check out this free book.)

Here are the steps to creating a multiple-copy package of your book or course:

1. Go to the Packages page for your book or course here:

...making sure to replace YOUR_BOOK with your book or course's unique web address.

On this page, you will see something like this:

2. Click the blue "New Package" button. This will take you to the page where you can set all of your new package's details:

3. Enter a name for your package. This could be something as simple as "5 Copy Pack" or something more suggestive of a typical customer's use case, like "Team Edition: Five copies":

4. Next, enter an "Identifier" for the package (this is for internal purposes only; customers will not see this):

5. Enter a description of the package. This will appear on your landing page, so try to make it clear and convincing!

6. Set the minimum and suggested prices for the package. (If you're new to Leanpub, here's an article about our "variable pricing" model.) Please note you can change these prices at any time, and we encourage authors to experiment with pricing until they find the right price point.

Typically, the price for a multiple-copy package should be set at the relevant multiple of the price for a single copy, but with a discount.

So, for example, if the minimum price for your book is $14.99 and the suggested price for your book is $19.99, then buying five copies at the minimum price would cost someone $74.95, and buying five copies at the suggested price would cost $99.95. A generous discount on those price points would be to offer a minimum price for a five-copy package for somewhere between $39 and $59. So, for example, you could offer a minimum price of $39.99 and a suggested price of about $49.99:

The discount is entirely up to you of course. Our recommendation is to price a 5-copy package at 50% to 70% of the combined minimum or suggested price of 5 books. This way, you earn what you would earn from 2.5 to 3.5 sales, which is less than 5, but a lot more than 1. (The sharing will sometimes happen anyway, so you should think of these sales as being something like "this 5-copy package earned 250% the price of 1 copy" not as "this 5-copy package earned 50% of 5 copies".)
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7. Select the number of copies you would like to be included in the package:

8. Next, you will see an option to add "Extras" to the package you're creating:

When you're creating a multiple-copy package whose only distinguishing characteristic is the fact that you get multiple copies of the book, like a normal "Team Edition", you should skip this step.

However, the ability to add "Extras" to Leanpub book packages is a really powerful feature. Basically, it means authors can include digital content they've created as an "extra" to accompany purchases of their books, whether that's an audio file, a code sample for a programming book, or videos.

These extras are included in a package along with the book, and this package is then sold at a higher price than the price for buying an individual book without any extra content. (Of course, you can also add extras to multiple-copy "Team Edition"-style package. If you want to learn more about extras, here is an article with more information about this really powerful feature.)

9. Click the big blue button at the bottom of the page to create the package.

Here's what this will look like on a book's landing page:

Here's what a customer would see if they selected the package:

A little further down the page, people will also see a section where they can read the description of the package:

Of course it's up to you as an author to decide how you want to do this, but we recommend authors set up two multiple-copy packages, like in this example:

After someone buys the package, they will see a link that says "Click here to manage your download tokens." They can also see an option to manage their download tokens if they select the book or course in their Leanpub library. This will take them to a form that lets them use each recipient's email address to send them an individualized code, with instructions for how to redeem the code and get their copy.

(The way that download tokens are managed with multiple-copy package purchases is identical to the way that it is done when you buy multiple copies by changing the number of copies for a normal purchase in our shopping cart. To learn how these tokens are shared by customers after they make a multiple-copy purchase, customers get clear instructions on the post-purchase download page, and they can also see our Reader Help Center article here and our video here.)

Ok, that's it! For tips on using Leanpub's many other powerful features for selling completed and in-progress ebooks and courses, please read this article.