diff --git a/libhts/libhts.py b/libhts/libhts.py
index 638b76dd4c5cb40dd0c014aa3032480069c9bb12..7b23e8a19c4f3155c1b7b149979dbe06691b7c6e 100644
--- a/libhts/libhts.py
+++ b/libhts/libhts.py
@@ -284,10 +284,13 @@ def plot_counts_distribution(data, xlabel):
 
 
 def plot_boxplots(data, ylabel):
-    ax = data.plot.box()
+    fig = plt.figure(figsize=(6, 12))
+    ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
+    data.plot.box(ax=ax)
     ax.set_ylabel(ylabel)
     for label in ax.get_xticklabels():
         label.set_rotation(90)
+    plt.tight_layout()
 
 
 # Cutoffs in log fold change