A couple of days ago, a new Humble Bundle featuring my book Uglies launched!
Excitement!
But what, you may ask, is a Humble Bundle?
It’s a set of e-books (or video games) that are sold together to raise money for charity and for the creators of the books.
Here’s why it’s cool:
1) It’s super cheap. In fact, you pay whatever price you want. The only limit is, if you pay less than the average of all previous purchases, you only get four of the books. But if you pay the current average or more, you get the two “locked” books as well (one of which is Uglies). The average payment currently stands at US $10.87. Not too bad for six books! And if you pay $15 or more, you also get an audio version Cory Doctorow’s Homeland.
But wait! There’s more! A set of mystery books will appear soon, and you’ll get those books too if you pay the average or more. So many books for a bit over ten bucks.
A slightly helpful infographic:
2) Humble Bundles support charity. In fact, you can choose how much of your payment goes to charity and how much to the creators (and you also can tip Humble Bundle for providing the infrastructure). The charities for this bundle are WorldReader, a global literacy charity, and the SFWA emergency fund, which helps science fiction writers who find themselves bankrupted by medical bills.
3) All the e-books are DRM-free. You can use them on any device and make as many copies for personal use as you desire. (We are trusting you not to be pirates. Please do not be pirates.)
4) The books are good:
The Best Days of Our Lives by Wil Wheaton
Tithe by Holly Black
Jumper by Stephen Gould
Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier
Mogworld by Yahtzee Crowshaw
Uglies by me
Homeland (exclusive audio version) by Cory Doctorow
Plus bonus mystery books by mystery authors! (I am fancy and already know what they are and they are great! Note: Not actually mysteries in the genre sense. More like YA.)
In other words, a combination of classic and new YA, and some nonfiction to boot. Plus secret bonus books, which is fun.
As I write this, 12,950 bundles have sold, raising $136,889.60!
Anyway, to buy the bundle simply go to humblebundle.com and cough up some bucks. Do this within 12 days!
So why am I participating in this process?
1) I will get some money out of it. That’s cool.
2) Money will be raised for two fine charities. Global literacy means more readers in the world, which is good for me and for civilization, and emergency medical funds for sf writers are often needed. (I live in the socialist hellscape of Australia, so my medical bills are guaranteed for life. But I have lots of friends who might need this one day.)
3) People will read Uglies for this almost free price and then go buy other books by me for real money. (An old trick.)
4) People who come to buy Uglies will get exposed to the other books on the list, which will be good for those lovely authors! (The reverse is also true, but covered under 1 and 3.)
5) It seemed like the cool kids were doing this. And it’s fun to watch the counter go up and more money appear.
Still not sold? Because, like, all you guys already have Uglies? Surely this video will change your mind:
More Uglies TV show news here soon! (But not instantly, because Hollywood.)
First 😉 joking
Am I the only one who keeps reading this as Humble Bumble? Haha. Really interesting concept! Hopefully it’s successful 🙂
AND am I the only one here that doesn’t like e-books? Maybe that’s just because I don’t have any sort of device to read one… but seriously, I love the feel and (shhh) smell of books – reading off a screen just doesn’t give me the same experience!
Ah, the sensation of physical books. I agree with you wholeheartedly.
I third that notion. I don’t mind reading textbooks or research online, but reading for pleasure is only pleasurable when the books are paper, in my opinion. But, I support the movement because it’s wayyyy more environmentally friendly, so yeah.
MORE uglies news? Scott-la, why do you tease us so?
also, does anyone know anything about the third Uglies Manga?
I want the third manga!!!! And Zac, I totally agree about paper books. The only time I use my kindle is when I can get books for free that I would normally have to pay for…
Lol Zac, I was thinking the same thing 😛
So far, a good year for books and tv that I love!
Maze runner (which looks fantastic!), Divergent, The fault in our stars, GIRL MEETS WORLD!, now this news? my life is just so complete
but back to this charity thing….HOW COOL!…problem? I own most of those books already in hard copy! but I do hope this gets people reading Uglies! it really is worth it! It turned me into a reader (and magnified my love for Harry Potter substantially!) and made me a life long fan of anything written by Scott! this book is seriously a life changer! and Charity! wooo!!!
This looks like such a cool idea, I’ll definitely check it out!
@Zac-la: A few years ago I would have totally agreed with you, but now I’m kind of a Kindle fan 🙂 Whenever I can, I get the physical books because obviously those are better, but I do read a lot of e-books. I guess I like it because it’s not using up any paper, and also because it’s practical, for example, I have over 30 books on my kindle and it’s like, half and inch thick! But still, physical books are the best
(I love the smell of books too, especially old books)
THIS IS SO COOL
@1: I agree; I really prefer physical books. However, I have read e-books. The Bane Chronicles for instance, since the hard copy doesn’t come out until fall (I think). (Speaking of which, the last one just came out and I kind of stole my dad’s nook and took it to school and had physical reactions to Magnus and Alec’s first date in the middle of class. There are ups and downs to being able to easily hide e-readers among textbooks….)
Dear Scott,
   My name is Emily and I am an aspiring actress of 15 intersected in playing Tally if a production of Uglies was ever made! I understand you must get messages all the time and that I sound like just another crazy young kid who wants to be famous. That’s not true. I am a hard worker and I have a love for acting. I am 5′ 8″, brown haired and blue eyes. I think that I would suit the role of Tally extremely well. I understand if you can’t help me pursue this dream but I would still like to hear from you. You are an amazing writer and I would like to be a part of portraying your writing in another way. Also I like to write in my free time so if I ever was able to pursue this I would love to talk to you about writing and how to plan out a book.
Thank you for your time and consideration and I hope to hear back from you.
Emily
I bought the Humble Bundle and was delighted with your book. I happen to be the mother of a 12 year old who is going to adore Uglies and will share it with her middle school friends. I actually bought the bundle for Homeland, but it led me to discover your book and it will lead to more readers for you. Thanks for participating!
I would buy this, but I don’t have an e-reader. Drat, foiled again.
Scott…you just made my life with that Uglies news. I was so worried about a movie in the middle of this whole wave of dystopian movies being put out, but this is just perfection. I know, I know, TV shows can flop, I’m realistic, but I’m also optimistic! If we even only get one season, that’s enough for me…I’ll cherish that one season. Currently re-reading Uglies right now, actually, and it gets more amazing and brilliant each time I read it. Thank you!!!!!
I am so obsessed with the uglies series that I refuse to read anything else and just keep reading uglies pretties specials and extras because they are so amazing and I hope they make a tv show or movie that would be awesome. I wish I could be Tally even if it was an act I would feel like it were real. So I wish I could play Tally cause that would be awesome. I love uglies. Thanks for making the best book series ever.