# Drivethrufiction Authors: Cross-Publisher Bundle



## Guest (Dec 5, 2014)

I was thinking about setting up a cross-publisher bundle at Drivethrufiction.com. TO avoid interfering with other holiday promos, I want to set this up for release at the beginning of January. If you have books available for sale at Drivethru and want to participate, just post below for now so I can get a sense of interest. The only requirement for the bundle is that the book added to the bundle cannot already be free. You CAN, if you want, offer the book for free as part of the bundle. But the book cannot already be available for free. The point of a bundle is to give people a deal. If something is already free, there is no deal!

For those who don't use Drivethru or are new to it: Drivethru allows you to set up cross-publisher bundles, in which products are sold together but sales are reported individually to each publisher. Nothing has to be uploaded again. The site simply pulls the data from the existing listings and processes each sale as a separate sale on the back end.


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

What genres are you looking to include in this bundle?


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## Gone To Croatan (Jun 24, 2011)

I've only just started uploading my books there, but I'd be interested.


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## Guest (Dec 5, 2014)

Robert Dahlen said:


> What genres are you looking to include in this bundle?


Not restricting any genres. I personally publish sci-fi, fantasy, and horror and that is my primary customer base, so I would keep that in mind.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Totally interested in this. Just let me know genres and price ranges!


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## Guest (Dec 5, 2014)

Also interested.


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Not restricting any genres. I personally publish sci-fi, fantasy, and horror and that is my primary customer base, so I would keep that in mind.


Well, I think I fit in to that.  I'm interested!


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Count me as interested.


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## Guest (Dec 5, 2014)

Genres: any. Not going to micromanage genres too much. I trust people to use common sense (OK, maybe that is my first mistake...)

Price: Any price except permafree. If you include a book in the bundle, I would ask that you discount it by at least 10% for the bundle. You can discount it for more that 10%, and you can offer it for free as part of the bundle. The book's normal price, however, cannot be free.

Number of titles: I would like to limit it to no more than two titles per author. Otherwise the bundle will get unwieldy. 

Target date: Early January. Once the bundle is live, my intention is to leave it live as sort of a "sampler". So please don't add books to the bundle that you intend to pull out of distro and through in Select anytime soon. People pulling books out after the bundle goes live will do more harm than good.


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## SVD (Jan 15, 2013)

Sounds good.  I'll have a book out of Select and back on DriveThru by Jan.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Definitely interested. I'm a big fan of DriveThruFiction and their bundling option.


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Price: Any price except permafree. If you include a book in the bundle, I would ask that you discount it by at least 10% for the bundle. You can discount it for more that 10%, and you can offer it for free as part of the bundle. The book's normal price, however, cannot be free.


Newbie question: Could I leave the price outside the bundle at the standard price, but discount it for the bundle only? For example, my first book is $2.99 on DTF; could I leave it at that price for single sales, but cut it to 99 cents for the bundle?


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## Victoria J (Jul 5, 2011)

I'm interested. I'll put one of my sci-fi books in.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Robert Dahlen said:


> Newbie question: Could I leave the price outside the bundle at the standard price, but discount it for the bundle only? For example, my first book is $2.99 on DTF; could I leave it at that price for single sales, but cut it to 99 cents for the bundle?


Yes, you can. Bundle prices at DriveThruFiction are completely separate from regular prices.


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## Sarah Ettritch (Jan 5, 2012)

I'm interested.


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

CoraBuhlert said:


> Yes, you can. Bundle prices at DriveThruFiction are completely separate from regular prices.


Thanks, Cora! OK, I'll give it a shot.


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## Nicholas Andrews (Sep 8, 2011)

I'll volunteer my humorous fantasy The Adventure Tournament for the bundle. I don't think I've ever sold anything at drivethru anyway, so I may as well give it a shot.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Robert Dahlen said:


> Thanks, Cora! OK, I'll give it a shot.


You can also set up your own bundle, e.g. bundle Monkey Queen books 1 and 2 and offer both at a reduced price.


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

CoraBuhlert said:


> You can also set up your own bundle, e.g. bundle Monkey Queen books 1 and 2 and offer both at a reduced price.


Thanks for the info, Cora. I may do a bundle or omnibus sometime next year, after I get books 3 and 4 out, but right now I could use some exposure, and a multi-author bundle might work better for that.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

So.

I have some choices to make here and I'd like everyone else looking to be part of the bundle's opinion because it would effect the final bundle.

There are three books I like for this, each with its own merits:

- The Big Book: 4 collected volumes of a DungeonPunk Fantasy that sells for $8.99. I can discount it down to $5.99 for the bundle, offering a quarter million word work at a significant discount that might help draw people. The downside is that it's really, really big and might make the other books look shorter by comparison AND the $5.99 price might inflate the bundle price quite a bit.

- The Medium Book 320-page Superhero book that sells for $3.99. I'm willing to take that down to $1.99 or .99 for the bundle. The con is that its structure is kind of an anthology unto itself and depending on how you look at it, is either 1 story (plus 2 bonus) or 15 highly connective shorts (I do not sell these ANYWHERE individually). Might blow the 'one or two books per person' deal in some people's eyes.

- The short: 13K word Fantasy short story that is currently set to pay what you want and averages 99 cents on DTF. I'm not even sure how bundling PWYW books works on DTF; last year, we couldn't do a PWYW bundle, so that might not even be a thing. It's part of a much, much larger setting and I'm comfortable putting it into the bundle for a dime if need be. The question is if this bundle is going to want shorts or full novels--I'm cool with both.


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## Gone To Croatan (Jun 24, 2011)

I'm only going to have shorts and novellas up by the end of the month, and would discount them substantially for the bundle.


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## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

Sounds interesting. The only thing I have up at DTF right now is my zombie short story collection. How would that work with what you're doing?


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## Indecisive (Jun 17, 2013)

I haven't sold anything at DriveThru yet, but I do have 2 books up. The historical-fantasy-merman novella would probably be the best fit. It's 24k and currently priced at $2.99, but I could offer it at 99cents or free for the bundle. 

Is this a limited-time bundle? (If so, I'll do a "price" of free). If it's going to be an ongoing long-term thing I'll do 99 cents. 

(Quote from the peanut gallery: "Mom's looking at KBoards again, at breakfast! She can't control herself!")


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

I'm interested in this! I've got a sci-fi/fantasy book that could use some more love.


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

Vaalingrade said:


> So.
> 
> I have some choices to make here and I'd like everyone else looking to be part of the bundle's opinion because it would effect the final bundle.
> 
> ...


I'm a bit surprised no one else has spoken of. I'd be okay with the medium book, as long as it's presented as its own unit.

Should we reach an agreement on what price to charge for our work for the bundle? My first Monkey Queen book sells at $2.99, but I'll be happy bundling it for 99 cents.


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## Aducknamedjoe (Apr 25, 2013)

I'm interested as well!


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2014)

Vaalingrade said:


> So.
> 
> I have some choices to make here and I'd like everyone else looking to be part of the bundle's opinion because it would effect the final bundle.
> 
> ...


I've done a lot of bundles over the years. People who buy the bundles tend to look at the overall value instead of the final price. If the bundle ends up costing $20, but has $70 worth of books in it, nobody will be upset. If it costs $20 but only has $25 worth of books, then it becomes more an issue.



> - The Medium Book 320-page Superhero book that sells for $3.99. I'm willing to take that down to $1.99 or .99 for the bundle. The con is that its structure is kind of an anthology unto itself and depending on how you look at it, is either 1 story (plus 2 bonus) or 15 highly connective shorts (I do not sell these ANYWHERE individually). Might blow the 'one or two books per person' deal in some people's eyes.


If you are selling it as a single product on Drivethru, then I treat it as a single product on Drivethru. Like I said, I don't want to overthink this and micromanage it. If it is listed as a single product on Drivethru, then I'm fine with it.



> The short: 13K word Fantasy short story that is currently set to pay what you want and averages 99 cents on DTF. I'm not even sure how bundling PWYW books works on DTF; last year, we couldn't do a PWYW bundle, so that might not even be a thing. It's part of a much, much larger setting and I'm comfortable putting it into the bundle for a dime if need be. The question is if this bundle is going to want shorts or full novels--I'm cool with both.


I don't generally use PWYW so I don't even know if you can add PWYW titles, I think I would treat this like a free book, however. Does it have a "list price" to even show a discount?


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2014)

For those who asked:

Because I am looking at this as a "sampler" my thought is that the bundle would be available indefinitely. That is why I mentioned not including titles that you plan on putting in Select in the near future. You can always remove a title from a bundle at any point, but doing so would sort of screw things up for everyone else in the bundle. Ideally, this is probably good for backlist titles that you would like to get a little traction for, particularly if you have a new book in the series coming out.


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2014)

Awesome. How do we add our stuff?


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## Carradee (Aug 21, 2010)

I'm interested. I'd like to contribute my urban fantasy _Destiny's Kiss_, though you may want to check it out before accepting/refusing it. It's genre crossover and touches a fair number of buttons that can make folks uncomfortable. (Christian teenage narrator with PTSD is legally enslaved and trying to balance high school, work, and her situation; older guy with maturity issues gets a crush on her [but doesn't act on it&#8230;and it creeps her out, though not for the reasons you'd expect]. Things like that.)


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2014)

I'll set up the bundle on Drivethru and then share directions for how to add titles. As I said, I am aiming for early January so probably won't set everything up until Christmas is over so that there aren't conflicts with any promos people are already running.


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2014)

Carradee said:


> I'm interested. I have an urban fantasy that I'd like to contribute, though you may want to check it out before accepting/refusing it. It's genre crossover and touches a fair number of buttons that can make folks uncomfortable.


Unless it is flagged as adult content, then I'm not micromanaging the bundle. Which I guess does bring up the point that the bundle can't include adult-flagged content, because then the entire bundle would get flagged as adult content. But I don't think anyone who has posted to this thread has adult content so I don't think there is a problem.


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## Carradee (Aug 21, 2010)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Unless it is flagged as adult content, then I'm not micromanaging the bundle.


Okay. Cool.  No adult-flagged content.


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## Guest (Dec 17, 2014)

Update:

I have created the bundle on Drivethrufiction, but it is not live yet. 

To add a book to the bundle, log in to your Drivethrufiction account. Go to Title Management and then select the Manage Bundles option.

In area #3, you will see a place to enter a bundle number and password. The bundle number is 4874. The password is...surprise!...kboards.

To clarify again, to keep it simple:

For now, I want to keep this two two books per publisher. 

Do not add permafree titles to the bundle. However, you CAN set a book that normally has a list price to free specifically for the bundle. For example, you will see in the bundle that I set our Legendary Horrors anthology to free. It normally sells for 99 cents.

When you add a title, you must set it at least 10% off the list. You can offer a bigger discount if you want, but it has to be at least 10%. If I find titles in the bundle that don't offer a discount, I will remove them. 

I will flag the bundle as live the first week of January, so this should be enough time for people to get their books added.


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Great. Thanks, Julie.

The title I'm going to add comes out of Select today, so once I've made it live again on DTF, I'll add it to the bundle.


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## Gone To Croatan (Jun 24, 2011)

_Fade To Grey_ is in, I just need to get the preview working properly before it goes live.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Just added Mercy Mission. Good to see this bundle growing.


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## Gone To Croatan (Jun 24, 2011)

And _Final Contact_, though I may swap it for a different book before the bundle goes live.


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Just added The Five Elements.


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## Guest (Dec 19, 2014)

Just added mine!


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

The first Monkey Queen book, _Of Introductions And Abductions_, has joined the party! But Michiko and Beth want to know if there's coffee.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

No coffee, but a bullying fighter pilot gets knocked into a pot of protein sludge in mine. And there's pudding, but I don't think Carlotta is feeling like sharing.


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

Robert Dahlen said:


> The first Monkey Queen book, _Of Introductions And Abductions_, has joined the party! But Michiko and Beth want to know if there's coffee.





CoraBuhlert said:


> No coffee, but a bullying fighter pilot gets knocked into a pot of protein sludge in mine. And there's pudding, but I don't think Carlotta is feeling like sharing.


Got that, Beth? Tell Michiko you'll need to stop by the local coffeehouse first. And be careful - I think she's ordering the triple espresso.

We now return you to your regular thread.


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## ravenkult (Feb 9, 2014)

Added my book for half price. _The Mind is a Razorblade._


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## Indecisive (Jun 17, 2013)

I can't seem to add mine -- the "manage bundles" thing seems to be locked/inaccessible.


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Just added SoulQuest to this bundle.


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2014)

Thanks to everyone that is participating in the bundle. It's shaping up to be great. I will probably close the bundle soon so I can finalize everything and have it ready to launch after the New Year.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Big Book is in at a deep discount. Julie, if you think I'd do better to go even lower, let me know. I want to stake my claim on DTF for they are my people.


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## thisisnttess (Dec 23, 2014)

Hi, and thank you heaps for organizing this, and I hope it's okay that I just put something in the bundle without asking first!

Someone sent me a link to this, and it seemed to be open to anyone, so I did.

Anyways, I just joined to say thank you, so, um, thank you!


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2014)

thisisnttess said:


> Hi, and thank you heaps for organizing this, and I hope it's okay that I just put something in the bundle without asking first!
> 
> Someone sent me a link to this, and it seemed to be open to anyone, so I did.
> 
> Anyways, I just joined to say thank you, so, um, thank you!


You now must do penance by sending me some Dove dark chocolate candy. I shall expect them delivered this afternoon lol

Just so that everyone knows what I am planning:

I just purchased 5000 front page credits at Drivethrufiction that will be used to promote the bundle when it goes live.

Once the bundle is live, I will also send out an email through Drivethru's system to all my customers alerting them to the bundle.

I'm going to create a promotional PDF to go with the bundle that will include blurbs and covers from all participating author's books. It will be included with the bundle and I'm going to try to get it set up as the sample on the product page.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Let us know, if you need any info from us, Julie.


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## Sarah Ettritch (Jan 5, 2012)

I added one of mine. Thanks for organizing this, Julie.


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## thisisnttess (Dec 23, 2014)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> You now must do penance by sending me some Dove dark chocolate candy. I shall expect them delivered this afternoon lol


so i got you some candy, honest i did, but then, when i looked at the bundle, i couldn't find the button for "send actual candy to bundle creator" so I couldn't...

oh well.

but now i'm thinking they actually need that button, haha 

and um, since you aren't actually getting any chocolate, i'll just have to say... thank you again for all this work!


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## Guest (Dec 29, 2014)

Update: I've made the bundle live, but I haven't started promoting it yet. I needed to make it live so I can "see" it properly to make sure the cover uploaded. I threw together a quick bundle cover so that the ugly beige bundle icon isn't on the page. Going to try to get the promo PDF completed today and added so that it can be ready to go Friday to start promoting.


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## Guest (Dec 29, 2014)

I have a bazillion DTF promo points accrued over the last year or so that I've never used. How can I best use them to promote this?


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Update: I've made the bundle live, but I haven't started promoting it yet. I needed to make it live so I can "see" it properly to make sure the cover uploaded. I threw together a quick bundle cover so that the ugly beige bundle icon isn't on the page. Going to try to get the promo PDF completed today and added so that it can be ready to go Friday to start promoting.


Will .jpgs of the cover and/or promo PDF be available for us to use on blogs, Facebook, etc.?.


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## Guest (Dec 29, 2014)

Robert Dahlen said:


> Will .jpgs of the cover and/or promo PDF be available for us to use on blogs, Facebook, etc.?.


Yes, I'll make them available. Probably on my blog or my website. Once I do, I'll post with all the details.


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## Guest (Jan 2, 2015)

http://www.bardsandsages.com/community

I have created a page on my website on which I will have information on "community" based projects, including this one. For those of you that want it, you can find the promo cover and the link to the promotional PDF on this page. Feel free to use it on your own sites.

I sent out the promotional email to my Drivethru customer base this morning and the front page promos for the bundle will start today.

To prevent people from adding to the bundle now that it is "live" I have changed the password. If for some reason you need to remove a book from the bundle moving forward, let me know and I will provide the new password.

The direct link to the bundle is http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/141712/&affiliate_id=51852

If you have a Drivethru affiliate account, you can change the last five digits of the link to your own affiliate code to use in links on your site. There was a time when Drivethru automatically set up publishers with affiliate accounts, but I don't know if they still do. To find the affiliate information, go to the bottom of any page on the site WHILE LOGGED IN and click the Affiliate System link. If has instructions on how to use and/or sign up for the affiliate program. If you already have an affiliate account, the page should show your affiliate ID in the samples. If you don't have an affiliate account and are uncomfortable about using mine, just delete everything after "141712" in the link above and use that.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Thanks for organising this, Julie. 

I'll be sending out my newsletter over the weekend and of course I'll include the bundle as well. I'll also be promoting it via my social media and on my blog.


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

I'm working up a blog post now. I'm happy to use your affiliate id in my links.


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## Guest (Jun 24, 2015)

I deactivated the bundle today. A couple of folks have decided they wanted to put books in Select. We tried. It didn't take off like I hoped. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.


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## Guest (Jun 24, 2015)

I think the main problem was that the bundle consisted of a crap-ton of books scattershot across all genres, instead of five or six books aligned clearly by genre. If I were going to do it again, that is how I would organize it.


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## thisisnttess (Dec 23, 2014)

Thank you for organizing it, all the same, and putting in all the work to make it happen...  it's a shame it didn't take off but it was worth trying, and I really appreciated you doing it, so thank you!

(oh, I was one of the people in it, in case that isn't obvious...!)


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Can't account for other people making the wrong choices.

Anyone interested in doing a Sword and Sorcery/High Fantasy and/or Dungeonpunk bundle?


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Thanks for organising this, Julie. And though the bundle never really took off, it did get a few sales plus follow-up sales for subsequent books in the series.


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## Guest (Jun 25, 2015)

Vaalingrade said:


> Can't account for other people making the wrong choices.
> 
> Anyone interested in doing a Sword and Sorcery/High Fantasy and/or Dungeonpunk bundle?


I totally, totally would... but my epic fantasy WIP isn't finished yet. 

Next year in Jerusalem!


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## ravenkult (Feb 9, 2014)

I can set up a horror bundle if there's interest.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

I'd be interest, Ravenkult, although we might be better off starting a separate kboards thread for this.


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