Some are calling it a “Netflix for books.”
Arc Manor is venture testing a new approach to sf publishing in cooperation with a number of publishers and authors – including several recognized via the Prometheus Awards.
Arc Manor, best known to LFS members as the sf publisher of Prometheus winners Robert Heinlein and L. Neil Smith, is gearing up for Book Bale, its new download-books subscription program, with a special July discount.
Quite a few publishers are involved in the program, with the most prominent being Baen Books (a frequent publisher of Prometheus nominees, finalists and winners, including the 2022 Best Novel winner Rich Man’s Sky by Wil McCarthy) and Locus magazine, the monthly sf trade magazine covering the sf publishing field.)
The wide range of authors participating include Hugo, Nebula and Prometheus winners and major New York Times bestselling authors – such as Orson Scott Card, George R.R. Martin, Lois McMaster Bujold and Harry Turtledove (Turtledove won the 2008 Prometheus Best Novel award for The Gladiator, while Bujold’s novel Falling Free was inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 2014.)
In addition, members will be able to access exclusive interviews and readings.
The first interview is with Lois McMaster Bujold, and is scheduled for a July release.
Additional benefits include interactive discussions with authors; exclusive book readings; online chat sessions with agents, editors, publishers and other industry professionals; and advance review copies of selected new books before they are officially published.
The currently available immediate-download inventory of Book Bale offers more than 650 books, and is growing daily, Arc Manor reports.
Authors managing their own portfolios under the new program include Thomas K. Carpenter, Jeff Carver, David Gerrold, Matt Huges, Scott Overton, Kate Poelle, David B. Savage, Robert J. Sawyer and Anthea Sharp.
How does the new program work?
Anyone may sign up through Arc Manor to become a Book Bale member. Members pay a monthly subscription fee of $9.99 and can download books every month for up to $60. All books are listed from $2.99 to $8.99, so that means that a member can download up to 20 books each month.
Such a deal – especially for avid sf readers.
Currently, and through mid-July, Arc Manor is offering a discount, including a coupon for 25 percent off for the next three months’ subscriptions.
In addition, everyone gets a 14-day risk-free trial membership. (Credit cards will only be charged after the 14 days.)
To sign up, visit BookBale.club (Note: After the official Book Bale launch date of July 17, the website to visit will be BookBale.com)
After going through the sign-up process, click on “enter a promo code” and put in the promo coupon code “publisherspick” (without the quotation marks.)
Use BookBale.club to log in as well after you have registered.
Among the Prometheus-recognized works available: L. Neil Smith’s Blade of P’Na, a 2017 Best Novel finalist; and Heinlein’s The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel About Parallel Universes, a 2021 Best Novel nominee.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE:
* Prometheus winners: For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to the full set of published appreciation-reviews of past winners.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,” an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards, join the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters! We understand that the arts and literature can be vital, and in some ways even more powerful than politics in the long run, by sparking innovation, better ideas, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights and differences.
