Starstruck series 4-book set finally available!

You asked, I answered, though I admit it took me a while. Ever since Starfall released, I’ve had readers asking if I wouldn’t please offer a boxed set of the full, four-book series. I love to make my readers happy, so of course I started looking into doing just that. Unfortunately, the logistics turned out a bit tricker than I expected. But now I’ve finally made it happen, and I’m absolutely delighted to offer it to you! Not only are all four books PLUS a few bonus bits now available in one volume, this set is a $2 savings over buying the books separately (yes, even taking into account that Starstruck is currently free!)

It’s a particularly good deal for anyone who’s just finished Starstruck and immediately decides they must have the rest of the series. 🙂

Now, you may notice that this set is currently available everywhere except Amazon (even though more people buy books there than anywhere else). There’s a reason for that. It may not be a reason that matters much to most readers, but as an author who makes my living writing books, it matters kind of a lot to me. You see, while the other retailers don’t particularly care what prices authors or publishers set for their books, Amazon has rules in place that strongly discourage pricing any ebook above $9.99. Since these four books, bought separately, would cost about $17.00 (not to mention the extra bonus stuff I added), I simply couldn’t afford to offer the set for that price. Especially since I felt strongly that if I made it that cheap on Amazon, I’d have to do the same everywhere to avoid penalizing my readers who prefer to buy from other vendors. At the same time, it didn’t seem fair to my many Amazon readers to only offer the set on the other platforms, making it hard for them to get the books onto their Kindles. That dilemma was the main reason I held off for so long creating this set at all.

Recently, however, a new option has opened up for authors, one I found intriguing—and exciting!—enough to nudge me into trying it. Bookfunnel, which many of you have already used to download free books and stories from me and other authors, now makes it easy for authors to sell ebooks directly to their readers. Voila! Finally, a way to offer this complete set to my Kindle readers as well as everyone else, all at the same (discounted) price!

Here’s how it works: when a reader clicks the “buy direct” button, they’ll see the book’s page at Payhip, which has partnered with Bookfunnel for this purpose. There, when you click “buy now,” you’ll be able to pay with a credit card or your PayPal account, if you have one. As soon as you do that, you’ll be able to download the book in either mobi (for Kindle readers) or epub format (for everyone else). You’ll also get emails from both Payhip and Bookfunnel with download links for the book—so if you’re more comfortable downloading from Bookfunnel (which has awesome tech support), that’s perfectly fine.

Once I’d set up the Payhip/Bookfunnel option for the Starstruck set, I thought, “why not make ALL of my books available for direct download?” That seemed like a logical thing to do and if you keep reading, I’ll explain why. You see, every single one of the e-book vendors—Amazon, iBooks, GooglePlay, Kobo, NOOK, even Smashwords—takes a cut for every book they sell, in some cases a pretty hefty cut. By selling directly, authors get to keep much more of the cover price. For many of us, this might be the difference between writing full time versus getting a “day job” to help make ends meet—and thus, writing fewer books. It’s an exciting idea for us authors, who’ve always had to deal with publishers and vendors deciding which books to show readers and how much to pay us for the books sold. Personally, I love the idea of cutting out the middle man and working directly with my wonderful readers! Soon, I hope to make a few special books available ONLY from my website, books that can’t be found anywhere else. I hear some authors are already offering things like “author’s cut” editions with deleted scenes, omnibus editions of entire extended series…really, the ideas are boundless. (Readers, what would YOU like to see me offer?)

For those of you nervous about downloading directly, I totally get it! Amazon (and iBooks and the others) have gone out of their way to make it super easy for you to buy from them. You pay for a book and it magically appears on your phone, tablet or e-reader. I won’t pretend that buying direct from an author doesn’t involve an extra step or two, and I fully understand that many of you won’t be willing to take that step. For those of you who are, I suggest you first try it with one of my FREE offerings. I have three at the moment, each one the first book in a series: Starstruck, Gabriella and Scandalous Virtue. Click the “Download Now” button. Except for the payment part, the process is exactly the same as buying a not-free book from my website using the “Buy Direct” button. Once you’ve tried that, you can see everything I currently have available for direct purchase HERE.

Even if you’re not the least bit tech-savvy, I promise the folks at Bookfunnel are incredibly patient and knowledgable when it comes to helping you get a book onto your device, so please don’t hesitate to click their “Need Help?” link if you have ANY trouble whatsoever. And please, let me know how it goes!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, which turned out a lot longer than I’d planned. And, no matter where you buy your books, HAPPY READING! 🙂