Giving a digital reading device to a devoted and addicted long time romance reader is a lot like giving a kid a lifetime pass to Disneyworld.\u00a0 It's also like giving the reader's family\u00a0a new lease on life.\u00a0 My house has romance novels in nearly every nook and cranny.\u00a0\u00a0See, I don't just read the books - I save them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
If I get a yen to read a particular book, the search through the stacks will first send books flying around a couple of different parts of the family room. Then it'll send them headed out the door of my youngest son's walk-in closet.\u00a0 Finally, in desperation, it'll even cover the macho\u00a0floor of the male holy land - our garage.\u00a0 \u00a0I haven't touched one of the paper books since Christmas - but I haven't replaced them all (yet) with digital versions, so one day it'll happen again, I'm sure.\u00a0 But it'll happen a lot less often.<\/p>\n
My very first\u00a0ebook purchase was of a single title.\u00a0 It helped me try out the device.\u00a0 I have a Sony Pocket Reader<\/a> which is an excellent way to enter the market.\u00a0 It doesn't have wi-fi or a 3G wireless function so I can't surf the web or check my email.\u00a0 All it does is display ebooks but it does that very well.\u00a0 One thing I adore is that it is sized so that it fits right in\u00a0my purse.\u00a0 One day, I may upgrade to a wi-fi or 3G enabled device, but that market is shaking out so much now that\u00a0it constantly reminds me of how smart my hubby is.\u00a0 My computer guy spouse says never adopt a new platform or technology (or software) until the kinks have been worked out and the price settles down.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The SECOND purchase I made for by ereader was of the Linda Howard, McKenzie's Mountain<\/em> bundle<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0And a new love was born.\u00a0 I discovered a deep and profound love for bundles.\u00a0 How do I love them?\u00a0 Let me count the ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n I love the convenience.\u00a0\u00a0 I can carry a 5 book series right in my purse and have it with me whenever I'm in line or have to wait around for something.\u00a0 Portable\u00a0entertainment may be the hallmark of the 21st century.<\/p>\n I love that I can pick up a whole series with one click.\u00a0 In my paperback days, I'd often miss one of the volumes of a series.\u00a0 Or I'd start reading at book 3 only to find out later that books 1 and 2 are out of print.\u00a0 The bundle means that I don't have to spend my\u00a0free time searching used book stores and yard sales for that first or second volume.\u00a0<\/p>\n I love getting the whole story in one click.\u00a0 This is related to the above point, but a little different.\u00a0 Most series, like the ones I write, do stand alone, so I can enter at book 3 and not miss the earlier story.\u00a0 But if I miss the earlier books then I do miss seeing the whole portrait of the prior hero and heroine.\u00a0 I miss their meeting and their courtship and their falling in love.\u00a0 I don't get to fall in love with them - I meet them as a happy couple in\u00a0 someone else's story.<\/p>\n I love getting a real introduction to a new author.\u00a0 One book can be deceiving.\u00a0 I may read one book by a new author and not like it and assume I won't like anything else she writes.\u00a0 That author will have lost me as a customer forever.\u00a0 I may read that one book and love it and go out and shell big bucks to buy 2 more paperbacks - at a cost of around $16 bucks or so - only to find that I don't like her at all.\u00a0 Then I've wasted money.\u00a0 A\u00a0bundle gives me a good introduction to a new author by giving me her vision for these characters in one purchase.\u00a0<\/p>\n Most of all, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THE VALUE OF EBOOK BUNDLES.\u00a0 Like I mentioned above, it would cost about 16 bucks for me to pick up 2 books by an author.\u00a0 In today's economy, I'm not doing that often, if at all, and I'd never shell out the money to buy\u00a03 or more in one sitting.\u00a0 I got the 5 book McKenzie's Mountain<\/em>series for around $15 at the Sony Store<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0A bundle decreases the cost of an ebook to between $3-$5, and that's a good deal.\u00a0 Etailers who give readers value and quality content for their money will build devoted customers.<\/p>\n My Sony Reader supports a couple of different formats, but it does Epub best and Epub is the new, up and coming, open industry standard.\u00a0 Sooner or later, I'm convinced that Apple<\/a>, B&N<\/a> and Amazon<\/a> will realize how many sales they are missing because of their ill-conceived proprietary formats.\u00a0 Then the big three\u00a0will\u00a0stop trying to sell a 21st century product with 20th century limitations.\u00a0 Hurrah for Sony's vision of the future!!<\/p>\n I'm getting ready to make a new bundle book purchase and I did a Google search for ebook bundles to find what etailers sold them in Epub for the best prices.\u00a0 And guess what I discovered?\u00a0 Sony wins again!!\u00a0 Right in the Sony reader store, you'll find the best value and variety of ebook bundles.\u00a0 I'm currently eyeing Brenda Joyce's Master's of Time <\/em>Highlander series<\/a>.\u00a0 I can pick up 3 of the books in that series in the Sony store for about $11 - a great deal for a Brenda Joyce purchase because her books are nice and thick and I'll get a lot for my money.\u00a0 I'm also looking at a couple of ebook bundles by new to me authors and I'm thinking of exploring something else I've just found at the Sony store -\u00a0\u00a0BOGO.\u00a0 Who doesn't\u00a0adore buy one, get one free deals?\u00a0<\/p>\n As an indie author, I don't get the chance to do real bundles, but I'm currently trying an experiment in the Kindle store.\u00a0 If it works, I'll follow through at Smashwords which will\u00a0feed it out to Apple, B&N, Kobo and even - my beloved Sony.\u00a0 HOW I'D LOVE FOR SONY TO DO AN EBOOK BUNDLE OF MY STUFF FOR SALE IN THE SONY STORE......sigh.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But, like I said, I'm trying to do one on my own in the Kindle store.\u00a0<\/p>\n Right now, Kindle owners can buy my FOREVER <\/em>SERIES - A Faerie Fated Forever<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>A Golden Forever<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>and A Sixth Sense Of Forever<\/a><\/em> - in the Kindle store FOR LESS THAN $9.\u00a0 To accomplish that, I lowered the price for Golden<\/a><\/em> to 99 cents.\u00a0 I think it's a good deal - if I do say so myself.\u00a0 And I do.\u00a0<\/p>\n So I, who deeply and sincerely adore ebook bundles, have created one of my own for Kindle owners and if it goes well, I'll do the same via Smashwords for all the other etailers.\u00a0 Go and check it out - pick up the series and let me know what you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Giving a digital reading device to a devoted and addicted long time romance reader is a lot like giving a kid a lifetime pass to Disneyworld.\u00a0 It's also like giving the reader's family\u00a0a new lease on life.\u00a0 My house has romance novels in nearly every nook and cranny.\u00a0\u00a0See, I don't just read the books - ...continue reading \"The Lure of Ebook Bundles\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=996"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1000,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions\/1000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}