Humble Bundle Proves eBook Prices Can Be Cheap AND Profitable

The latest offering from Humble Bundle, a website devoted to limited-time-only, pay-what-you-want media collections, garnered over $888,500 for authors and charity in one week, according to GalleyCat. With another week to go, expect to see this number jump even higher.

Author Cory Doctorow spearheaded the bundle, which includes his latest novel Pirate City alongside works by Neil Gaiman, John Scalzi, Lauren Beukes, Kelly Link and others. Some books are unlocked by beating the customer average of $13.64, but as the Humble Bundle team points out, purchasing each book separately at the going rate would cost about $157, so it’s definitely a good deal.

In the website’s introductory video, Doctorow explains his intent behind the collection: “There are people in the big publishing industry who are convinced without DRM, without high prices, they won’t make any money, and we can prove them different, we can prove them wrong. We can make a huge difference.”

Profits from the Humble eBook Bundle go directly back to the authors, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Child’s Play Charity, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Customers choose how much (if any) money goes to each, so if you were inclined to stick it to the SFWA, you could do so, though it isn’t recommended.

Want to buy the bundle? Go here.

Now, who thinks this is a new direction for digital media? Will this and other pay-what-you-want endeavors help drop eBook prices?