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Humble Bundle and Worldbuilders

I don’t know about y’all, but I love books.

You know what else I love? Supporting charitable causes.

And last but not least, I enjoy getting a bargain as much as the next guy.

If you’re into any of these things, this blog is for you.

I’ve talked about Subterranean Press here before. I’m fond of them for many reasons. They produce fine, high-quality books, doing lovely specialty editions, and occationally bringing a lost work back from out-of-print. Not only that, but they’re the reason The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle ever saw the light of day, and they’ve been long-time supporters of my charity, Worldbuilders.

So here’s the news: Subterranean Press is celebrating their 20th anniversary, and they’re doing it in style by teaming up with the folks at Humble Bundle to do an international e-book bundle.

What’s Humble Bundle? I hear you ask.

Well, Humble Bundle teams up with creators to bring together a bunch of something (a bundle, if you will) then they let you decide how much you’d like to pay for it. This means you usually end up getting hundreds of dollars of books or games for a bargain price.

But that’s not even the best bit. The best bit is that they let you decide where your money goes. You decide how much of your money goes to the creator, how much goes to a charity, and how much you’d like to leave as a tip for Humble Bundle itself.

For this bundle, the associated charity is Worldbuilders, if you hadn’t already guessed.

So let’s say you’ve been a fan of Subterranean Press for ages, and you want to grab a bunch of these delicious books for yourself. Here’s how you could do it.

humble slider

(Actual footage.)

Hmmm… you sure you want to go that route? You do know that Worldbuilders is, like, a really awesome charity, right? You know we do good things all over the world. We help hungry families, promote sustainable agriculture, provide clean water and education for….

25_wb awesome

Woah there. You don’t have to give Sub-Press the short straw, either. This is their party after all. They’re the ones supplying the books, and they were gracious enough to bring Worldbuilders in as their charity….

50_all equal

Hmmm… Well, in some ways you’re taking the coward’s way out with this option. But I noticed that you bumped your overall donation up to 50 bucks, so I’m not particularly inclined to call you names at this point….

My point is that the Humble Bundle gives you an unprecedented amount of control over your purchase. (And, honestly, these sliders are a lot of fun to play with.)

So here’s the details about the Sub-Press Humble Book Bundle:

If you pay any amount of money at all, you’ll get these e-books.

base bundle

The Jack Vance Treasury, Inside Job, Muse of Fire, Jacaranda: A Novella of the Clockwork Century, The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories, The Top of the Volcano: The Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison®, and Brayan’s Gold.

If you pay more than the average donation (currently $12.58), you’ll also get the following twelve books:

The Mallet of Loving Correction, Nobody’s Home: An Anubis Gates Story, The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, The End of the Sentence, The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate, Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium, and Amityville Horrible, Bleeding Shadows, I Travel by Night, Salvage and Demolition, New Amsterdam, and The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein.

morethanaverage

additions

So just to break it down for you, if you pay at least $12.58 (or so) you’ll get all 19 of these.

Lastly,  anyone who pays $15 or more will receive all of the above, plus three more additional e-books:  Academic Exercises, The Hunter from the Woods, and Black Hat Jack.

over15

So as long as you donate more than $15, you get more than $123 dollars worth of e-books. AND you get to support a great publisher and a great charity at the same time.

I’d like to point out that included in these books are three I’ve hugely enjoyed myself. Specifically, Scalzi’s collection of blogs, and Salvage and Demolition, which is a nice taste of Tim Power’s writing for those of you who haven’t tried him before.

Best of all, one of my all-time favorite series is in this mix: The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox.

hugart_b

(This includes Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was)

Honestly? That e-book is worth $12.50 just by itself. It’s a book I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys fantasy and has a functioning soul.

I wish I could talk about more of these books, but honestly? Those are the only ones I’ve read. It’s shameful, really, as there are books here by some of my favorite authors. That’s why I just made a point of buying this bundle myself. It’s a bargain even if I just read one or two of them.

Need another excuse to jump in? All these e-books are DRM free, so you can read them on any platform you like.

That also means you’ll be able to read them in any *country* you like. That’s something you won’t find anywhere else.

This is a *very* limited-time offer. So don’t wait too long or you’ll miss it.

And if you know of anyone else who likes awesome things, I’d appreciate you helping us to spread the word. There’s only five days left, and after that, the deal is over.

Here’s one last link to the Bundle.

You know what to do,

pat

This entry was posted in cool news, Subterranean Press, WorldbuildersBy Pat24 Responses

24 Comments

  1. Dore
    Posted February 27, 2015 at 2:56 AM | Permalink

    “I’ve talked about Subterranean Press here before. I’m fond of them for many reasons. They produce fine, high-quality books, doing lovely specialty editions, and occationally bringing a lost work back from out-of-print.”

    Perhaps a little off-topic, but how do they pick these lost works? When a “must read” list of for instance fantasy writers is published, it’s usually the same names that are repeated. Tolkien, Lewis, Howard, Baum and so on. Most are still remembered today for a reason, but there are also a lot that are forgotten for an unknown reason. Other that are famous today could just as well have been forgotten too for one reason or another. Just as there are present day writers that are very little known even if they write great books.

    • Posted February 27, 2015 at 3:54 PM | Permalink

      They’ve been in the business for a long time. They know what’s good and what isn’t, and they know what it takes to get some of these back into print.

      The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox is one of the books they’ve saved from the dustbin of history…

      • Dore
        Posted February 28, 2015 at 5:31 AM | Permalink

        Hard to disagree then. Idealistic publishers that preserves the best of so-called speculative fiction for present and future generations should be welcomed by the fans.

        It goes without saying, but I noticed that if you read a novel you like, the number of customer reviews on Amazon should give a hint about how well known it is amongst readers. The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (which I have not read yet) have 77, while a younger novel like The Waterborn (Chosen of the Changeling by J. Gregory Keyes), another fantasy novel for those who are looking for an alternative to “Tolkienesque fantasy”, only has 30. Just a potential tip.

        (Sorry if this seems to be further off topic, but since not all works are considered important or interesting enough for a reprint, it doesn’t mean they are not entertaining. So in case it should be of any interest an example could be mentioned. Lost: a moon (1955) by Paul Capon, is a juvenile science fiction novel that’s a little outdated by today’s standards. There is really nothing original or revolutionary about it, it does not make any important contributions to the genre and the story is simple and straight forward. But it has a charm and an innocence to it that is rarely if ever seen today’s world where teenagers in dystopian futures is the big thing.)

  2. ericturner29
    Posted February 27, 2015 at 5:29 PM | Permalink

    Pat,
    Let’s say there was a really dumb guy who wanted to buy these, but was unsure because he has no idea how he’d get them on him kindle. What advice would you give?
    Asking for a friend.
    Thanks,
    A really dumb guy

    • Posted February 28, 2015 at 3:22 AM | Permalink

      Hello Not-Actually-Dumb-Guy,

      The good news is, it’s really easy! Purchasing the bundle gets you PDF, ePub, and Mobi versions of every book. ePub and Mobi are two kinds of eBook file formats. Kindle supports PDF and Mobi, though if it’s an e-ink display Kindle I would definitely use the Mobi version because it’ll be more functional. Just head over to the Send to Kindle page and pick which platform you’d like to use. The Send to Kindle application, as the name suggests, helps make it super simple to add your own books and files to your Kindle. For example, I use the Windows desktop app so I can right-click a file and choose “send to kindle”, pick which device I want to send it to (it supports the Kindle app, like on a phone, too), and voila! It should show up on your device within a few minutes. There’s some help articles on Amazon if you get stuck or feel free to ask and I’ll do what I can!

      • Posted February 28, 2015 at 11:11 AM | Permalink

        Totally not a dumb question. But I didn’t know the answer, as I’m not a kindle person.

        Thanks for jumping in, Matt.

  3. Laelaps
    Posted February 27, 2015 at 7:31 PM | Permalink

    For those of you who also like another way to donate to Worldbuilders, I just discovered something that I guess has been a around for a while now. If you shop at amazon for whatever reason may be, use http://www.smile.amazon.com in lieu of the usual URL. It will automatically donate something like 3% of your purchase to the charity of your choice without increasing the cost of anything you purchase. I know that the 3% doesn’t seem like all that much, but every little bit helps. Well, that and it doesn’t cost you another penny more than what you had been planning to spend on that site anyways.
    Sorry if it seemed like a plug Pat, was not really my intention there. just wanted to let people know other ways they can donate with every day purchases as well.

    • Posted February 28, 2015 at 11:10 AM | Permalink

      Is it really 3%? I remember hearing about it a while back, and then it was something like .5%

      • Posted February 28, 2015 at 11:17 AM | Permalink

        Yeah. I just checked, Amazon donates .5%.

        Other bookstores like Powells offer *way* more. (Powells gives us 7.5%) if you follow this link:

        http://www.powells.com/partner/42347/

        • Laelaps
          Posted March 1, 2015 at 4:31 AM | Permalink

          yea, i realized that right after i had posted and couldn’t go back and edit it. I should have written a comment to correct myself. Thanks Pat.

        • Mauro
          Posted March 10, 2015 at 9:55 AM | Permalink

          Bear in mind that Amazon’s donation happens in almost any purchase you make there, not just books. So, use Powells if you’re buying books, but if you’re shopping at Amazon anyway, use smile.amazon.com and your chosen charity will get the .5%.

  4. jthomas2b
    Posted February 28, 2015 at 12:30 PM | Permalink

    Is it just me, or is the humble bundle site down today, February 28th. Is it only available on leap days?

  5. scaldini stone sword
    Posted February 28, 2015 at 2:03 PM | Permalink

    Before I help and spend that money to help the world to be a better place and also get a lot of books (life is great, look at this) I have a question, because I really don’t use to buy e-books.
    -I also want to apologize for the english, I’m brazilian and there is still a lot of things to learn.
    If I buy through the laptop I will be able to read it through the same laptop or just in a Kindle or those kind of plataforms?
    Sorry if I am not good writing or anything like that. Pat, i love your beard, when I grow up I want one like this.
    João Scaldini, brazilian, future writer and bon vivant.

    • Holmelund
      Posted February 28, 2015 at 4:15 PM | Permalink

      Short answer: You can read it on the same laptop.
      Long answer is made by IntergalacticMatt a litlte further up in the comments.

  6. Athena
    Posted February 28, 2015 at 8:07 PM | Permalink

    This was a great example of win-win-win! Because of my fanart on the blog, I got a few commissions offers, which means I have some money to spend on books for the first time since my Christmas Kindle giftcards. I bought my bundle using that money. Everyone wins! Thanks bunches, Pat!

  7. SporkTastic
    Posted February 28, 2015 at 11:09 PM | Permalink

    This is as close as I get to buying drugs. “Hey man, you should try these books out. They’re cheap – buy this book, get twenty for free. C’mon, who doesn’t love free books?”

  8. ACDragonMaster
    Posted March 1, 2015 at 11:56 PM | Permalink

    Off-topic, but I’m curious whether you have, by chance, had a chance to see the Marvel tv miniseries Agent Carter. The reason I ask is that in one of the later episodes, there’s a scene of Howard Stark which reminded both my friend and myself immensely of Auri in Slow Regard…

  9. BV
    Posted March 2, 2015 at 8:55 AM | Permalink

    Hello Pat…have you seen the cover of your book in The Netherlands yet? It’s gorgeous.
    Greetings.
    http://www.boekerij.nl/data/docman/w245/23268_54c76fb399bc2_23268.jpg

  10. Fatikis
    Posted March 2, 2015 at 11:26 AM | Permalink

    Wish I would have donated the money to charity instead I gave it to you for The Slow Regard of Silent Things.

    Really losing my faith in you. The first two books were amazing. Years later you cannot push out a decent continuation.? Then you write a terrible cash-in book.

    I don’t mind the price of the short story. However it was objectively a bad book. Mediocre cheesy poetic lines with zero character development or plot.

    I remember back when you said you’d already finished the books and we wouldn’t have to wait years for the next.

    I turned 5-6 people onto you saying you were one of the greats. I now regret that. All of them loved the KKC and hated Slow Regard. All of them agreed it was a horrible cash-in. It was an attempt to cash in to the hipsters that like bad things. This book is for the kind of people visit dive bars and claim they like them.

    I will never again suggest your writing after that last literary atrocity.

    • Nereus
      Posted March 4, 2015 at 6:01 AM | Permalink

      That’s kind of twisted, don’t you think? How can you call a small, 100-page book an “atrocity?” The thing barely had room to be good, and it managed!
      Oh, you think Pat has become a disappointment? Really? I’m sorry, stranger, but I’m guessing you haven’t read a good series in a while. You see, it’s in a nice book’s nTure to take forever to be written and published. That’s something you can count on. Get over yourself, friend. That’s my advice. Just because you and “5-6” people didn’t like the book doesn’t mean the rest of us down here are inclined to crap on it too.
      Ah, yes. I had a question: how does a small book that has nothing to do with the trilogy make you so disappointed? You didn’t act have to read it. Why complain?

  11. Posted March 3, 2015 at 8:31 AM | Permalink

    So I’m curious, Pat. I’ve worked with a lot of non-profits through the years and I’m wondering how you fund the home office. It •seems• as if you donate all of the winter fundraiser straight to Heifer, but I know the money for your staff has to come from somewhere.

    If you don’t mind me asking, how do the staffers get paid?

    I’m just curious where donor dollars end up…

  12. Posted March 5, 2015 at 9:47 PM | Permalink

    Got the Humble Bundle; am now loving The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox. Thanks for the tip!

  13. benj
    Posted March 18, 2015 at 12:14 PM | Permalink

    Let’s say that a really dumb guy missed this humble bundle, but still really wants all of these books (and wants to donate to worldbuilders). Is there any way to get them, or am I just screwed?

    Thanks!
    -ben

  14. RideOnDre
    Posted April 4, 2015 at 1:27 PM | Permalink

    Still busy with all those books included, but I really have to agree to my forewriters: ‘The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox’ are simply brilliant!
    Thanks a lot for making me aware of both these books and the whole idea behind it, I’m sure it won’t be my last bundle.

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