Kindle Bargain Bundles

One of the major advantages of ebooks is that you don't have to try to hold those huge volumes that are produced when authors release omnibus editions. With an ebook, the only difference between a three (or six) volume book is that the progress bar moves slower. And in ebook form, these multi-volume bundles are often a bargain, so long as you want all the volumes bundled together. With trilogies and series, the most often encountered bundles, this is usually not an issue, unlike movie bundles, where the genre (action, thriller) may be all that ties the bundle together.

The Alex Kava Bundle is one of the largest bundles I've seen offered at Amazon. This bundle contains A Perfect Evil, Split Second, The Soul Catcher, At the Stroke of Madness, A Necessary Evil, the first five novels in her popular Maggie O'Dell series and One False Move, a stand-alone novel, all for the price of $18.12. That's $3.02 per book and purchased separately they would cost $30.12 (at today's prices/discounts). Exposed, currently the last in the series, is available, but at $13.47, while Black Friday is scheduled to be released in October of this year.

The Study Series by Maria V. Snyder is one that I read in paperback and really enjoyed. This bundle includes Poison Study (not available otherwise on Kindle), Magic Study and Fire Study, and also includes as a special bonus, the online read written exclusively for eHarlequin.com, Assassin Study! The Heather Graham Bundle combines romance, suspense and a dash of paranormal and contains four titles (The Island, Ghost Walk, Killing Kelly and The Vision) for $14.37 (under $3.60 each).

In Her Name by Michael R. Hicks is somewhat unusual in the trilogy/bundle category. This volume, a bargain $5.59 (versus the $19.75 print price), was released as a single book. But the author has had numerous reviewers and book clubs tell him that it is more suited to be published as a trilogy. Some were reading it in print and it is large and heavy to hold open, while book clubs like to tackle books of smaller length. At 684 (9"x6") pages and 2.1 pounds, it's definitely a long book. So, it's being broken up into three volumes and will be published as single volumes. I've no idea if the price will rise once this occurs (and the cool blue swordswoman won't be on the cover of the first volume; no word yet on the last two covers), but the original bundled volume will still be available.

Almost Human - paranormal vampire series - volumes 1, 2 & 3, by Melanie Nowak, is $9.99 as a bundle, while the separate volumes (Fatal Infatuation, Lost Reflections and Evolving Ecstasy) are $4.79 each, saving you $4.38 when purchased together. This is the beginning of an ambitious series - there will be four trilogies, a total of 12 volumes when complete. This author hasn't hit the bestsellers lists (most self-published authors never will), but has great reviews at Amazon and on several forums, some of which she stops in, from time to time, and answers questions directly. The series is in the vampire/romance genre and has a somewhat controversial relationship, which an older vampire and a young girl/woman (it's unclear from the description exactly how old she is and I haven't read this one ... yet). Then again, just because the vampire in Twilight looks physically young, he's also much, much older than the teen heroine.

Jennifer Armintrout's Blood Ties Bundle ($13.47) is another vampire themed series and this bundle contains four volumes (The Turning, Possession, Ashes to Ashes and All Souls' Night). There is only one review of the bundle so far and it is only one star - but the individual books have a number of reviews and tend to be 4 and 5 stars. I've started this series and I like what I've read, so far. If you prefer a more steamy vampire romance, check out Kimberly Raye's Love at First Bite Bundle. Four volumes of vampire cowboys for $9.99.

For those that prefer their romance to be vampire free, Harlequin has dozens of bundles available, mostly in the $7.96 to $9.99 price range. One noticeable exception is the Men Made in America Mega-Bundle, which contains 11 volumes for $31.68 ($2.88 each) and "features stories from all fifty states starring all-American cowboys, sailors, policemen, businessmen, ranchers and more! The first Men Made in America Mega-Bundle includes The Redemption of Deke Summers by Gayle Wilson, Found: His Perfect Wife by Marie Ferrarella, Arizona Heat by Jennifer Greene, Deceptions by Annette Broadrick, Dr. Dad by Judith Arnold, Send Me a Hero by Rita Herron, Tangled Lies by Anne Stuart, Love by Proxy by Diana Palmer, The Temptation of Rory Monahan by Elizabeth Bevarly, Mysterious Stranger by Patricia Rosemoor, and Bayou Midnight by Emilie Richards." Once you've made your way thru this one, you may also want to pick up Men Made In America Mega-Bundle 2 and Men Made in America Mega-Bundle 3, each containing eleven more volumes at the same $31.68 price. For 95 dollars, you get 33 book in all, enough to satisfy even a voracious reader (at least for a few weeks!).

Another sure bet is the Jennifer Crusie Bundle at $9.99. Crusie blends humor and romance and the four in this series are no exception: Getting Rid of Bradley, Strange Bedpersons, What the Lady Wants and Charlie All Night.

Not all bundles are bargains though. Check out Blossom Street Bundle by Debbie Macomber. At $18.01, it contains three volumes (The Shop on Blossom Street, A Good Yarn and Back on Blossom Street) and costs more than those three titles purchased separately ($16.92). Had they tossed in Twenty Wishes, currently at $13.47, that would have been a bundle I could go for.

The Chronicles of Elantra Bundle by Michelle Sagara is described as high fantasy meets police procedural. Containing the first three volumes in the series, Cast in Shadow, Cast in Courtlight and Cast in Secret, the current price of $16.42 is also slightly above the sale prices of $5.04 for the individual volumes ($15.12 total). The list price of the bundle is also higher than the list prices for each volume separately, so it may always make more sense to buy these separately. Here again, had they included the fourth in the series, Cast in Fury, the bundle would have been incredibly tempting (and I've already sent samples of these individual titles to my Kindle).

Win a Kindle - Author giving away one an hour!

Update Contest is over. Check the author's blog for winners.

Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, is giving away a Kindle an hour and a bunch of other prizes today, to launch the publication of his new book. He thought the Kindle version would not be available for a few weeks, but it is out now and is already the #1 bestselling book at Amazon (using their hourly ratings), for both print and the Kindle. All you have to do is buy the book, in print or Kindle and email him a copy of your receipt. He's also posted some excerpts of the book and is doing a streaming video interview/chat session today, on his blog, where you can also get more details on the contest. Those of you who buy the paperback version, of course, will have to wait a few days to start reading, but the rest of us can be reading it this afternoon and a few will be waiting for that new Kindle 2 in the mail instead.

Free Ebook: Carrot Cake Murders

Update 4:15PM Deal is over at Fictionwise (now $5.6/$4.55 after rebate).

Carrot Cake Murder ($4.76 at Amazon) by Joanne Fluke. This is the tenth in the series and not all are available in digital form.

This title is actually listed twice at Amazon for the Kindle, once at $6.99 and once at $4.76. However, for what is no doubt a limited time, you can now get this title free at Fictionwise. It is in Mobipocket format, but has DRM incompatible with the Kindle. The reader software for your PC is free and it should work with any of the non-Amazon Mobi readers for phones and a few other reader devices.

Synopsis

Between baking up a storm for The Cookie Jar and unraveling the mystery of her cat Moishe-s recent strange behavior, Hannah Swensen has a lot on her plate. But she-ll always make time for her business partner, Lisa, who-s in the midst of preparing for a big family reunion. Everyone is delighted when Lisa-s long-lost uncle makes a surprise appearance. No one has heard from Gus in twenty-five years. Uncle Gus is immediately the hit of the reunion. He-s almost as popular as Hannah-s scrumptious carrot cake, which is also Gus-s favorite dessert. But the next morning, as the whole family gathers for the group photo, one person is missing. Hannah offers to track down Uncle Gus, but her search leads to a shocking find. Over by the bar at the pavilion, she spots two slices of her infamous carrot cake, frosting-side down on the floor-and Gus-s corpse with an ice pick jutting out of his chest!

Now Hannah-s got to sift through a long list of suspects to find a killer-even if it could mean a recipe for her own demise-

Read an E-Book Week Roundup

Well, Read an E-Book Week has ended and I did manage to finish up the book I was reading at the start and nearly finish the next one I started (Made to Be Broken by Kelley Armstrong). The E-Book Week only giveaways have ended, but I now have enough free books to keep me busy for weeks. There were literally hundreds of giveaways (too many to even attempt to get them all, even if every one appealed to you) and I think I downloaded a couple of hundred to try (on some I grabbed every format, in case there were problems in conversion or as a hedge against future hardware changes, so it's a bit hard to tell). I may not read them all and I'll definitely be more likely to drop one that doesn't grab my interest in the first few pages, but there are bound to be a number of gems in there -- several books I'd had on my wish list turned up free this past week, so I know there are good ones in the pile. But, if you didn't get your fill, I have rounded up a few last freebies and bargains to round out the week.

The first-ever completely online world science fiction convention Flycon 2009 has been going on this week and Vera Nazarian is offering her novella "The Duke in His Castle" as a free PDF download this weekend only. From the comments, it appears you'll still be able to grab this one on Monday, as she'll leave it up for those who don't check their computers on the weekend and those in other time zones.

There are a number of other freebies from FlyCon are available: Chris Dolley has posted Resonance in several formats (including Kindle-compatible mobi), The Admonishments of Kherishdar and The Aphorisms of Kherishdar are online reads (the latter is also available in paperback). Two audiobooks are also available: Spherical Tomi: A Novel of Despair, by Jack Mangan, and Temple of Cod (the first third of Brine, registration required), by Adrienne Jones.

Chris Howard, who released SeaBorn as a free PDF earlier this week, has another ebook, nanowhere, as a free ebook, available in several formats.

Jeffrey Carver, author of The Chaos Chronicles, has previously made Sunborn available as a free PDF, but now, for a limited time, has posted several other formats as free downloads. The PDF should remain free, but the additional formats are coming down when this one is released as a Tor ebook (which could be anytime now). And if you haven't picked up the Chaos Chronicles, they are on the same download page, also in several formats.

Jeffrey Thomas's Deadstock, a science fiction thriller, can be downloaded in PDF and mobipocket reader format. His latest, Blue War: A Punktown novel and Punktown (coming in April), aren't yet available in ebook format, but you can always click on the "Kindlize me" link for the paperback version.

If you're ready for a break from fiction or want to polish up a few work skills, be sure to check out the How to Think Like a Programmer series at Green Tea Press.

Leaving the purely free realm, there are a few bargains in the Kindle store. Pacific Avenue, by Anne L. Watson, is on sale for a penny.

Darksome Thirst by Morven Westfield is $3.98. This is a witches and vampire book, but promises to be a different kind of vampire, for those tired of good vampires or bad ones that run in packs.

BARRACUDA by Mike Monahan is marked down to $0.99 (be sure to check the price - the older listing for $7.96 is still there). Detectives, an island paradise, mafia, yakuza and a barracuda eating the tourists - what more could a story need?

Last, an online comic, Digger, is now online with free archives going back to the beginning (2007). Until recently it was a subscription only comic; now it's all free and updated every Tues and Thurs.