Indie Book Club discussion

Just an idea if anyone's interested...StoryBundle. These guys do a pretty innovative, out-of-the-box thing where they put together bundles of indie books (always the same genre) and then allow the customer to set their own price. 70% of the money goes to the indie authors and 30% goes to the StoryBundle guys (obviously modeled on Amazon's breakdown). They also allow the customer to earmark part of the price to go to charity.

Anyway, I've got my Tormay trilogy in their current fantasy bundle they just started running yesterday. They're keeping us up-to-date pretty well on stats and I gotta say I'm really impressed. I don't know what their mailing list is like or if it's broken into sub-genres like BookBub, but we're getting good number so far.

I'd encourage you all to investigate them as a marketing option. As far as I know, there are only two other outfits that do a similar kind of bundling thing. Can't recall their names at the moment.

http://storybundle.com/news/

Go to the FAQ page for the author submission stuff.

I was wondering when something like this would happen for indie authors, especially after ebooks were in a HumbleBundle. The FAQ is kind of sparse. Can you give any insight on what the submission process was like beyond sending an e-mail?

All I did with the email was to introduce myself, inquire about whether they were going to do a fantasy bundle and when, and then I included a very brief blurb about my book. It was a pretty informal email. Someone responded back to me (it was months ago) and said they hadn't any specific schedule at the time for a fantasy bundle but they would definitely be doing that genre in the future. I didn't hear from them again until a couple weeks ago. They wrote out of the blue and said they were ready to go.

That said, I initially wrote them right when they started doing StoryBundle, so I think they were moving slower back then. I imagine the process and schedule moves much faster now. Just my guess.

Speaking strictly from a readers point of view: I love StoryBundle. I've bought at least two and will probably buy the current set. I also bought a HumbleBundle but I think they've been doing games lately.

Seems like they do a new bundle every couple of months or so. I know one was a mixed bag of genres but the rest have all been the same.

What's HumbleBundle? Never heard of that one.

Oh, I love HumbleBundle! Was so excited a couple months ago when they had a book bundle. I'm stoked to see that there is a bundler dedicated to books! Just gotta finish our ebook version and then send them an email :) Thanks for the tip.

Aha. Here's HumbleBundle. Very cool.
https://www.humblebundle.com

Thanks for the info, Christopher.

And yeah, Humble Bundle is basically the same concept, but indie games. I suspect it's been around longer.

Sounds a good idea:)

I'm afraid I don't understand the concept-do they sell them at a discount rate, or something? Like those movie packs you can get at walmart? It's an interesting idea.

R.A. wrote: "I'm afraid I don't understand the concept-do they sell them at a discount rate, or something? Like those movie packs you can get at walmart? It's an interesting idea."

They allow the customer to pay whatever they think the bundle is worth.

J.D. wrote: "R.A. wrote: "I'm afraid I don't understand the concept-do they sell them at a discount rate, or something? Like those movie packs you can get at walmart? It's an interesting idea."

They allow the ..."

Huh. I don't know what to think of that. But I guess it must work or people wouldn't do it.
I can't believe I just wrote that. As if that has ever been true! Still, it's an interesting idea, and I'd like to hear how it works for people.