Bargain (DRM-free @ Baen) - 4 book Roberta Gellis bundle for $18 [Historical Romance]

[ATDrake]

So it turns out that Baen, of all people, are selling some of acclaimed historical romance author Roberta Gellis' backlist through their Webscriptions store.

Though maybe that's not so surprising, since she did write some sf/fantasy books for them a long time ago and more recently collaborated on an Elizabethan elves thing with Mercedes Lackey, who's one of Baen's really popular authors.

In any case, they had lurking tucked away on their "Book Collections" page an $18 4-book bundle of Gellis' 11th century historical romances, which are "regularly" priced at $5 each. According to the page, the special bundle pricing deal was supposed to expire starting April, but it's still live, so maybe it goes away in May?

Now, this may not seem like all that great a discount, but when you consider the fact that Ellora's Cave has set a suggested "digital list price" of $11.98 per e-book for their Gellis reprints (some in the same series, it seems), then if you're a fan, you'll appreciate the chance to save an extra $2 to put towards that $9+ per book (after most stores' discounts).

Though checking their website, it looks like the price drops to $6 per if you buy directly from them, at least for the titles I test-clicked, which is not so bad, though a little pricey for old paperback midlist, IMHO. And Ellora does sell DRM-free MultiFormat via their website (and DRM-free ePub via Kobo), which does up the value a little.

The included books are

1. Bond of Blood
2. Knight's Honor
3. The Sword and the Swan (prequel to "Roselynde Chronicles", co-authored with Lyle Kenyon Engle)
4. The Dragon and the Rose (pre-Tudor, also co-authored)

Baen also generously offers as part of their promo CDs 6 full novels by Gellis for free.

You can get This Sceptre'd Isle directly from the Baen Free Library and the two novels Bull God and Thrice Bound on the accompanying CD, and find the rest of the Doubled Edge series included with the CD that accompanies Mercedes Lackey et al's latest book, Invasion: Book One of the Secret World Chronicles. Both are available via the Fifth Imperium site, which generously hosts Baen's stuff with permission for promotional purposes.

Even though I'm not normally a historical romance (or really, any sort of romance) reader myself, I did splurge to get this, due to having gotten the aforementioned freebies previously.

And from the sample chapters and having read the Doubled Edge quartet, it looks like Gellis is one of those authors who's more tilted towards historical than romance, and puts in author's notes about the actual history behind the story, which I always like to see.

Baen kind of need some sort of e-mail newsletter, or at least an announcement page for this sort of thing on their website. I don't recall seeing any sort of indication that this bundle even existed at all.

[Piper_]

Got them all, thanks to your good memory and very kind PM alert. I've been so out of commission I would have missed them otherwise.

Seriously, you just made my day, weekend, and whole next month.

And yes, Gellis' books are well-researched and respected by historical fiction lovers. The romance she includes makes them nice too, but it's secondary.

[ATDrake]

Awesome! Glad you were able to get some good books at a low cost from a favourite author, especially to cheer yourself up when you were down.

You might want to keep an eye out for Fictionwise discount coupons. It turns out that some of her mystery/romances are being e-published by Belgrave House and so far 2 are available DRM-free MultiFormat from FW @ $5 each at the pre-coupon price.

And according to a message-to-the-fans update sort of thing on her website, Gellis is expecting to see more e-reprints throughout 2011 and 2012, with even more stuff being released by Sourcebooks at paperback-equivalent list prices, as far as I can tell. A little on the higher side, since TPB, but again couponable via Kobo.

Looks like she's committed to bringing her backlist to e-books in a big way, which I approve of in an author with so much stuff which is probably a bit hard to find due to limited genre shelf-life.

[sufue]

And my thanks too - I like supporting Baen because I like their approach to e-books, but I'm not a huge sci-fi reader, so I'm happy to find something a little different to buy from them!

And I did like Gellis's four (or so) medieval mysteries from a while back, so I'll give this bundle a try...

[vulcan_girl]

Thanks for this. I have two 1960s-era copies of Bond of Blood (the edges are colored red) and just last week I was wishing for eversions.

[Joykins]

thanks! I think I read some of these back in the day, and I remember enjoying them.

[Piper_]

One thing interesting about Roberta Gellis is that she has one masters degree in medieval literature, and another in biochemistry... kind of explains what seems like such an odd combination of genres she's covered.

Also, don't miss the titles ATDrake noted over at Ellora's Cave. The *first four of the Roselynde Chronicles are usually considered her best work, and they're there, also DRM-free, for $5.99 each. (I don't know if that's a temporary price or not, but the last time I looked, they cost the full $11.98 each, or at least close enough I was annoyed and wouldn't buy them. )

The first three in the Baen bundle cover the time period just preceding the Roselynde Chronicles, and they are are also very good, so if you get them all, read those first. (Dragon and Rose is a Tudor fantasy.)

*Roselynde, Alinor, Joanna, and Gilliane