I wrote about StoryBundle a while back. It seemed like a pretty neat idea– get five or six DRM free books for a price you set, and determine for yourself how much of what you paid should go to the company, the authors, and a charity of their choice, for a limited time. StoryBundle is on their second bundle now, which is a “Halloween Horror” bundle that includes titles by Joseph Nassise, Weston Ochse,  Jon F. Merz,  among others, and, if you’re willing to meet a minimum price, two additional books.

I did not try out the first StoryBundle, and I just learned about this one. But not that long ago, Publishers Weekly ran an article about HumbleBundle, which sounded like the same kind of thing, I went to the site to see if it was. HumbleBundle is pretty similar– the difference seems to be that the authors included in StoryBundle’s bundles are indie authors whose names the average mainstream reader might not recognize, but the authors included in the current HumbleBundle are much more well-known (and are getting a heck of a lot more publicity). Kelly Link, an author I love, contributed two titles to the bundle, and I saw the names of a couple of other authors I had not read but was kind of interested in trying out. So I purchased the HumbleBundle. Thirteen books and comics for whatever I want to pay, with the option to contribute some of the money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation? I’m there. And it is a good deal not just for me (not just for the price but because I’m trying new things) but for at least some of the authors of the books in the bundle. I had never read anything by John Scalzi, although I’d heard his name. His book Old Man’s War was included in the bundle, and it was fantastic. It is, of course, the first book in a series, though, so now I’m going to have to seek the others out. That works out to be a pretty good strategy! I’m now reading a book by someone I had never heard of at all, Lauren Beukes, and it’s amazing. Authors and publishers need to take a close look at how well this model is working. For anyone who isn’t really well read in a particular genre and is interested in trying it out, this kind of opportunity, either through HumbleBundle or StoryBundle is golden. Over a million people have purchased the HumbleBundle now… that’s a lot of customers, and most of them must be satisfied, or people would stop buying the books.  If you are a horror fan looking for some great Halloween reads, check out the books at StoryBundle.com– chances are you’ll find something you like.