Authors Helping Readers

I've been so busy with the Kickstarter for The Death of Dulgath, and finishing up the book, I've not been doing my weekeind "Authors Helping" posts. I do have one lined up for an author I want to shine a light on but because of a time sensitive nature of something that is coming soon, I need to talk a bit about something else this weekend. So, this one's for the readers and it involves one of my favorite sites...

More often than not, Humble Bundle isn't focused on books...it does a lot of game bundles and a fair amount of comic bundles. But when it does do a bundle with books it's something really special.  For instance, in October 2012 they did a bundle of fantasy and science fiction that included books from Neil Gaiman, John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, Paolo Bacigalupi, Lauren Beaukes, Mercedes Lacky and six other authors.

Now here's the really cool thing about Humble Bundle...the reader gets to choose not only how much they want to pay for the bundle of books, but how they want the money distributed.  For each project, Humble Bundle chooses two reading related charities and when you buy the bundle you can determine how much money goes to Humble Bundle, how much goes to the authors, and how much goes to the charities.  It's such a great idea...and because it's a bundle of books not only do you get something you were looking to buy, but usually some other things that you can discover that you hadn't even realized.  All at a fraction of the full-price cost.

Now, of course, they want to entice you to bid higher than lower, so what they usually do is have the following:

• The basic bundle - which gives a good assortment 5 - 6 products for any price you want
• A bunch of additional books that come to you if you pay a certain price (say $10 or $15)
• A "beat the average" option - where if you pledge at least the average of what all backers have paid you'll get 5 - 8 additional books

I'll give you an example from a Humble Bundle one of my books was in. This was for audio books (rather than ebooks) and here's how it broke down:

Name your price (4 audio books)

• Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown
• The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
• Strip Tease by Carl Hiaasen

Unlocked with beat the average of $9.34 (3 additional books)

• Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan
• Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
• How Music Works by David Byrne

Unlocked with $10 (1 additional book)

• Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

For just $10 you could get 8 really great audio books  - that's a great deal!

So, why am I talking about Humble Bundle today?  Well there is another book related bundle coming up. I know this because one of my books is included.  Now this bundle is a really cool idea and has a nice mix of products.  There are:

• Novels
• Choose your own adventure stories
• Comics
• Fantasy art books
• Anthologies
• Illustrated children stories

That's a really diverse set of books, but trust me they tie together rather nicely. I can't say too much more about the bundle until it is launched, but I can say mark your calendar for Wednesday, July 15th. The bundle will go live at  11:00 am Pacific Standard Time. I'll have a lot more to say then. You'll want to get involved right away for two reasons.

1. If certain thresholds are made there are usually books added to the bundle

2. Bundles only run for VERY limited periods of time. 

I'm really excited to be included in a Humble Bundle, the last one got an amazing number of readers in just a few short weeks, I hope this next one does equally well.  Stay tuned, more about this on the 15th!