Humble eBook Bundle Lets You Pay What You Want For eBooks

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Humble eBook Bundle Lets You Pay What You Want For eBooks

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday October 9, 2012 @07:05AM from the everybody-needs-books dept.

Following on the success of the various Humble Bundles for DRM-free video games, the organization has just launched its first Humble eBook Bundle. It includes Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow, Pump Six by Paolo Bacigalupi, Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, Invasion by Mercedes Lackey, Stranger Things Happen, and Magic for Beginners, both by Kelly Link. If you choose to pay more than the average (about $11 at this writing), you also get Old Man's War by John Scalzi, and Signal to Noise, by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. The books are available in PDF, MOBI, and ePub formats, without DRM. As with all the Humble Bundles, you can choose how much you'd like to pay, and how the proceeds are split between any of the authors and/or among three charities.

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I'm a gamer at heart by Gerinych · 2012-10-09 07:09 · Score: 4, Funny

Throw in some Steam achievements and you got yourself a deal.
1. Re:I'm a gamer at heart by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-09 07:26 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Like Neil Gaiman and John Scalzi?
2. Re:I'm a gamer at heart by jedidiah · 2012-10-09 07:44 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Baen already has a DRM free digital library and has since before the whole eBook thing ever caught on.
  
  --
  A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
3. Re:I'm a gamer at heart by ZeroMS · 2012-10-09 07:52 · Score: 2
  
  Did you just diss Gaiman??? Stay Anonymous, Coward.
Sure, why not by Sparton · 2012-10-09 07:16 · Score: 3, Interesting

I've been needing some good locally-saved reading material in between reading new 40K rules and my fantasy author of choice. I'm willing to back this on spec and hopefully it'll take off (maybe with certain bundles focused on certain types of books, such as sci-fi, or psychology).
Re:Pay what you want? Not quite. by guises · 2012-10-09 07:22 · Score: 3, Informative

Did you type it out: ten dollars? It will definitely accept a $10 payment as long as you use numbers like a normal person. Perhaps you're complaining that they don't accept the payment option of your preference? It would be nice, I admit, if they could set up a system to accept credit cards directly instead of going through payment processors, but they do give you a choice of processors. They're really pretty flexible.
Books worth more than games by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-09 07:23 · Score: 4, Interesting

Seems that book bundles are valued 50% higher than game bundles... nowhere near the same quantity sold yet, though :(
1. Re:Books worth more than games by thorist · 2012-10-09 07:45 · Score: 2
  
  There's an extra charity to give money to, maybe that's why. Plus probably quite a lot of people want to beat the average to get Signal To Noise. I read it a few years ago, it's pretty good but a bit weird (which could probably describe anything NG's done except for the cannabilism porn).
2. Re:Books worth more than games by ZeroMS · 2012-10-09 07:54 · Score: 2
  
  Leftover cash from not investing $$$$ in an OS, maybe?
3. Re:Books worth more than games by AliasMarlowe · 2012-10-09 08:08 · Score: 2
  
  As of right now, something else is going on that's strange. Here's the OS breakdown:
  
  Average Windows: $10.07
  Average Mac: $13.09
  Average Linux: $13.84
  
  In every Humble Game Bundle that I recall, the spread was much wider, especially for Linux users. While I suppose part of it is that we're so happy to support games that support Linux, I wonder what else might be at work here.
  Some of us Linux users already have John Scalzi's Old Man's War[*] and some edition of Neil Gaiman's Signal to Noise. So what's the point of spending extra to get something you've already got?
  [*] And the other stuff by Scalzi set in the same story-line: Zoe's Tale and The Ghost Brigades. I also have three other Scalzi books, and one in the shopping basket at Amazon. This humble ebook bundle is a matter of too little or too late for bibliophiles.
  
  --
  Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
4. Re:Books worth more than games by Black+LED · 2012-10-09 08:11 · Score: 2
  
  It's probably due to the much larger library of games available for Windows. Mac and Linux users will pay more because they don't have much of a selection to begin with.
  
  With these books, there is no such OS limitation.
5. Re:Books worth more than games by Quirkz · 2012-10-09 08:35 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Linux gamers intentionally pay more to skew the average, in order to encourage more developers to make more Linux games. (Including, I understand, a few five-figure donators who *really* pushed up the average.) There's no such incentive to encourage Linux-friendly eBooks.
  
  --
  The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
6. Re:Books worth more than games by cervesaebraciator · 2012-10-09 08:45 · Score: 2
  
  It's possible, but I'm not so sure. Every time I've participated in a Humble Bundle I've given more than the average for four reasons: 1) an admittedly pathetic and irrational but nonetheless real desire to see Linux users beat out the other categories (IOW, I would not have anyone think anti-DRM, FOSS faithful are just cheap--we have money and we're willing to give it, just not on locked-down terms); 2) Humble Bundle Inc. wisely sweetens the deal for those who go above the average to drive up the average bid; 3) when I do participate (which isn't always) it's because I actually think the product worth it; 4) rather than just complaining about the way things are going, I rather like to give money to the EFF because I think they're doing good work.
  It goes without saying that this is purely my own experience but since we're speculating I have to imagine that some share these reasons. After all, for every $242.01 outlier (the current high bid) there's likely a $.01 out there. We'll never know, as citizenr points out, without better information.
7. Re:Books worth more than games by citizenr · 2012-10-09 09:23 · Score: 2
  
  there's likely a $.01 out there
  isn't $.01 more like -$5 when you accept credit cards?
  
  --
  Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
8. Re:Books worth more than games by cervesaebraciator · 2012-10-09 09:36 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  True enough, true enough. But let's not speak of their agenda as though there were something nefarious going on. You can't get much more straightforward than the arrangement they offer.
Stranger Things Happen by bheerssen · 2012-10-09 07:31 · Score: 4, Informative

I bought Kelly Link's Stranger Things Happen on dead tree media a while back, and I thought it was fantastic. This bundle is worth it for that title alone.

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(Score: -1, Stupid)
1. Re:Stranger Things Happen by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-09 07:42 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  No it isn't. That book is freely available under a Creative Commons license here.
2. Re:Stranger Things Happen by k2r · 2012-10-09 09:38 · Score: 2
  
  And that the book is available under CC somehow makes the bundle worth less?
3. Re:Stranger Things Happen by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-09 13:18 · Score: 2
  
  The downmod is probably more a matter of your suggesting a book isn't worth money just because you can get it for free.
Next: Humble Development Bundle by ohnocitizen · 2012-10-09 07:41 · Score: 2, Funny

Pay what you want, support charity, get your product built!

Pay what you want! If you paid for web development separately, it could cost thousands or even millions of dollars for larger corporate sites!

You choose how your purchase is divided: Developers, Charities, or even Us!

Can't wait for the upcoming "Humble Education Bundle" and "Humble Grocery Bundle". This is the future.
Losing the roots by Applekid · 2012-10-09 07:43 · Score: 3, Insightful

As far as I can tell, these are all popular and published authors and books. Shouldn't a Humble eBook Bundle consist of new and unknown authors, in the same spirit of Humble Indie Bundle?
Except for one of those Humble Indie Bundles that included Psychonauts. Great game? Sure, but hardly Indie.

--
More Twoson than Cupertino
1. Re:Losing the roots by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-09 08:19 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Take a look at http://storybundle.com/ if that's what you're interested in.
2. Re:Losing the roots by NonUniqueNickname · 2012-10-09 08:30 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I'm not going to fault them for including successful games/music/software/authors. Quality drm-free content at a discount and supporting respectable charities is good enough for me. For you, there's a slider you can use to send all your money to the charities.
3. Re:Losing the roots by humanrev · 2012-10-09 11:30 · Score: 2
  
  I thought I was the only one who noticed that (Psychonauts being a publisher-backed game on an indie bundle). Not that I was complaining since it was DRM-free and ported to Linux. In fact, I'd actually be quite happy if we had more big titles from publishers appear on the Humble Indie Bundles. You'd have to rename the title though, but imagine Deus Ex - Human Revolution appearing as a Steam-free DRM-free download with a Linux version as well...
  
  --
  Most people on Slashdot are fucking idiots.
Kelly Link by bWareiWare.co.uk · 2012-10-09 08:15 · Score: 3, Interesting

Just to say Kelly Link's are more then just DRM free, they are CC BY-NC-SA:
http://smallbeerpress.com/wp-content/uploads/Kelly_Link_Magic_for.htm
http://smallbeerpress.com/wp-content/uploads/Kelly_Link_Stranger_Things.htm
And Cory Doctorow's is at least CC BY-NC-ND:
http://craphound.com/pc/Cory_Doctorow_-_Pirate_Cinema.html
Re:Pay what you want? Not quite. by mrchaotica · 2012-10-09 09:01 · Score: 4, Funny

Let's see, I like Arthur C. Clarke, so I'll pay $20.01: "2 0 . 0 !" (accidental shift+1)
Oops, now my account is overdrawn by $2.3 * 10 ^ 18...

--
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Re:No dead tree, no deal by Black+LED · 2012-10-09 13:23 · Score: 3, Insightful

I don't get people's fascination with these crappy little things that won't even let you leaf through a book
Why would I want to leaf through a book when I can perform an instantaneous search, jump directly to any bookmark or instantly open a book at any page?

or do any of the number of things that make dead trees so much more valuable than digital ink.
Such as?

"But I can carry around hundreds of books in my purse/backpack!" Good for you. Now read all those books at once. You can't? Oh, then what's the point of doing so?
The same point as being able to carry around more music than you can listen to in one sitting. Choice and convenience. If I get an urge to read something, I can pop it right up. If I need to reference something, I can pop that right up too.

Are you homeless and unable to store books anywhere? No?
No, but some of us live in apartments, studios or houses that are not large enough to fit an entire library and some of us have room but want to use that space for better purposes. Also, as stated above, there is the issue of convenience. If I am going on a trip somewhere, I don't have to spend time picking out the books I want to take, I can just grab my reader and have everything available when I want it and if it's not on my reader, I can easily download it.

eBooks have many benefits over paper books aside from what I've already said. You never have to worry about yellowing pages, faded ink or annotations/writing/highlighting on pages. eBooks allow you to change font sizes, font styles and zoom pages. eBooks never disintegrate with age and you can easily keep backups if anything happens to your reader. eBooks can be lent or given to other people, anywhere in the world, at any time without any concern about them damaging or returning your property.

The only "benefit" of paper books is that they are human powered instead of battery powered, which is a dubious advantage when you have battery life measured in weeks or months.