Is Book Bale legit? [Yes, it is]

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by meeera

And "Orson Scott Cart".

"smoothening things out" is also a bit awkward (though perhaps not outright incorrect)

[ZodWallop]

A small publisher I like, Piccadilly Publishing has been looking into a subscription model for their new releases. This seems like the same thing, but with a bunch of small publishers banded together. I say good for them. I hope they succeed.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I used to be a member of the Science Fiction Book Club.

I still have a few shelves of SFBC books around. It was a lot cheaper than purchasing hardcovers and while not the greatest bindings, they were better than most of the paperbacks in that era.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I still have a few shelves of SFBC books around. It was a lot cheaper than purchasing hardcovers and while not the greatest bindings, they were better than most of the paperbacks in that era.

I've actually started collecting older SFBC omnibus editions. There are a number of books where the SFBC edition is a whole lot nicer than the one from the original publisher (this is especially true for Baen).

[JSWolf]

I used to have a lot of SFBC exclusive editions.

[DrLimu]

I signed up, there's already enough titles to keep me interested for a couple of months. Hopefully they'll keep adding new titles. The discount code publisherspick still worked for me.

It also seems that if you sign up you get a 60$ coupon that you can use even if you cancel the membership before being charged after the 14 days trial period.

[ottdmk]

I just checked this out and sadly publisherspick is expired. I might still give the service a try though... I'm as yet undecided.

[jhowell]

Update on Book Bale

Dear Reader,

I just wanted to give you an update on the Book Bale Program.

First, thank you to all of you who have agreed to test the system. Your input (just your using the system, even if you have not sent in feedback) has been invaluable. Based on everything we have heard, we are set for the August 11, launch.

Many of you already are aware of it, but I would like to mention it again that our site was NOT created from the ground up, but is a heavily customized site based on an existing platform (WIX). There were quite a few reasons for this, including a well established system for creating payment structure and an industry leading up-time service.

And, quite frankly, the cost. While it is not cheap customizing to the degree we have with a programming team, the cost would have been exponentially higher had we built a robust system from the ground up.

However this does mean that we are limited in our ability to modify the site.

Having said that we are addressing many of the issues and suggestions raised. Including adding an author listing (even though it is static, and we are working on making it interactive), tweaking things like the sign-up screen where we were told the 'flow' if using tabs was incorrect.

But the biggest change we are working on is from feedback that we got from a lot of you -- that a lower price point with a lesser coupon amount would be preferable. Under the current scheme members can download up to 20 eBooks. This is way too much for most readers.

We are going to half the membership fee to $4.99 and half the amount of the coupon (to $30). We were trying to create both options (and here is were limited customization comes in) it seems like the WIX engines are prohibiting us from doing multiple offers like that. So we will just switch the plan.

You will, of course be told about the change and told if you need to do anything.

Finally a number of you have asked about more books, since none have been uploaded for a while. The reason is that we had stopped doing so while we make some of these changes (just trying not to complicate stuff). Some publishers have submitted material (including Lightspeed, Fantasy and Horror magazines, and Locus), and some have yet to so. But we will be uploading new titles in the next couple of weeks.

Anyway, onwards to August 11: Thank You and Good Evening,

Shahid

[DiapDealer]

Much better editing than on that previous email from Arc Manor, anyway (though I would quibble over the use of half/halve).

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Much better editing than on that previous email from Arc Manor, anyway (though I would quibble over the use of half/halve).

Also "and here is were limited customization comes in".

[Quoth]

And WIX is a really really bad choice!
There are various free and nearly free options that are better.

[ownedbycats]

Seeing they can't customize because they're using bloody WIX makes me... not very confident in the future success of this.

[MyFathersDragon]

I have used it for a few months. I paid $4.99 for a code to use for a $30 credit toward ebooks they have. They will be adding more ebooks. There are issues to be aware of, though.

First, I had a computer problem and was unable to download the books I purchased at the time of purchase, and then there were health issues in the family that distracted me. I went to download the books slightly over a month later, and my links were expired. You need to download them within a month.

Second, I don’t know how long the code to pay for an order is valid. I thought the code would last for a month (or at least 30 days), but mine told me it was expired when I tried to use it. I don’t know how long they actually last
I wrote to them about these issues 2 weeks ago but have not heard back. It is December and people might take a long Christmas break, so I am frustrated but not yet concerned about the delay in responding. I am concerned about getting what I paid for.

[DNSB]

As far as I can tell from my use of Book Bale's coupons, they arrive early in the month and expire at the end of the month. That is my December coupon arrived in my inbox on 2023-Dec-10 and will expire on 2023-Dec-31. Also the coupons are single use, you can use any amount up to the coupon maximum but you only get to use it one time. You are not able to use it to pick up $15 worth of books and then pick up another $15 worth of books a week later.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Also "and here is were limited customization comes in".

And "...some have yet to so." Presumably "yet to do so."

To those using this service, are the price points still $2.99, $5.99 and $8.99?