Making an eBook Bundle Work for You

Some of you have been reading about the Ultimate Healthy Living ebook bundle and found some things intriguing…but you have some questions or concerns.  Let me see if I can address some of those for you.  (All of this should apply to pretty much any ebook bundle, not just this one.)  If I’ve missed a question or concern, please leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to add it!

What do I do with the ebooks?

This is probably the most basic question, and its answer depends a little on what exactly you mean by “what do I do with them”?  If you’re completely new to ebooks, then you might be wondering how to read them, how to get them loaded onto an e-reader, etc.  The FAQ page for the UHL bundle has lots of tips for downloading the books, loading them onto an e-reader, etc.  I’ll just recommend you check that out, rather than reinventing the wheel. 🙂

Do I Need an eReader?

No, you don’t.  Although I can’t guarantee it’s the case for every bundle you’ll ever encounter, for this – and most – ebook bundles, you do not need an eReader.  The ebooks are typically not the “ebooks” you think of (Kindle format, Nook format, etc.); rather, they’re PDF files.  You can read them on any computer with Adobe Acrobat Reader installed.  It’s most likely your computer came with this already installed; if not, you can download it free.

You can, however, load them onto an e-reader.  The FAQ page mentioned above has more information about that.

But it Will Take Me Forever to Read Them All!

It’s okay; you don’t have to read them all.  🙂  Really – if you never get to all of them, that’s okay.  Think of this more as having a healthy living library (or homemaking library, or whatever bundle you’re looking at) right at your fingertips.  Chances are, there were a few books that really stood out to you that you’ll want to read very soon.  They’ll pay for the cost of the bundle.  Then everything else is icing.  Keep them where you can find them when you need them, and you can come back to them when they’re more immediately beneficial for you.

For instance, there are some pregnancy books in this bundle.  I’m not pregnant – and probably won’t be in the next six months or so.  So I don’t really need those books at the moment and probably won’t be reading them very soon.  But I know I have them (essentially “free” with the recipe books that are very useful to me at the moment!)  and when I am pregnant again, I can pull those out.

How Can I Organize Them?

Of course, if you want to be able to find them again, you have to store them in some sort of organized manner!  Everyone’s preferences are different, but one way is to have a folder on your computer for all of your ebooks, and subdivide it into category-based folders.  This particular bundle actually comes as a zip file (unless you choose to download individual book files) with subfolders by category.  It would be really, really easy to just pop the whole zip file into an “ebooks” folder on your hard drive, and be able to find everything again later.

You could also burn the whole bundle to a CD-ROM if you don’t want to store it on your hard drive.

What if I Don’t Need All of the Books?

Maybe there are a few books in the bundle that you won’t ever need.  (For instance, maybe you aren’t ever expecting to be pregnant again, so you don’t need any pregnancy books at any point.)  Or maybe you already happen to own one or two of them and don’t need duplicates.

Well, guess what…you can give them away!  Now here’s the deal: in order to respect the authors’ copyrights, each book can only be in the possession of one person.  Imagine it like a print book – if you buy a book you can’t keep it and give it away.  Ethically and legally, ebooks work the same way: you may keep it or you may give it away, but not both.  So if you give away one of the books, you have to delete it from your own files.

But this is a great way to get a super value out of the bundle.  You can keep the ones you need/want, and give away the ones you don’t.

What if I Don’t Like Ebooks?

Shhh…let me tell you a little secret: I don’t like ebooks.  I know, crazy, right?  I publish my books in ebook format because readers want them, but I don’t actually like them, myself.  I like to hold an actual paper-and-ink book in my hand, and I really don’t like scrolling down the screen.

But I buy them, anyway, because you just cannot beat deals like this one!  It makes information I can really use for my household much more financially accessible for me.  (Besides, it saves space, which my husband appreciates!)  There are two different options that can make them more palatable for those who prefer paper.

1) Print them out.  If it’s a sit-down-and-read-through-it book, then just print it out and you can read it on paper.  You don’t have to print all the books in the bundle, just the ones you know you’re immediately interested in.

2) Load them onto an e-reader.  I thought I would never get an e-reader.  I even wrote a post a while back about “why I don’t have a Kindle.” As noted just above, I still prefer a “real” book.  However, an e-reader is much more like reading a regular book than a computer screen is.  There is something about being able to “flip pages,” even if it’s digitally, as opposed to scrolling down a screen.  (I still don’t have a dedicated e-reader, just a Kindle app on hubby’s tablet.  But I understand that dedicated e-readers, like the Paperwhite or original Kindle are also much easier on the eyes.)

But if I Don’t Read Them All, it’s Not a Good Deal…Right?

It depends, but…it probably still is!  Look at the value of the books and bonuses you do really want, or know you’ll use.  If they add up to the cost of the bundle, then you’re essentially paying for them and getting everything else free.  If they add up to more than the cost of the bundle, you’re already saving money, even if you never read/use anything else in the bundle.  (In this particular bundle, the laundry detergent alone is worth almost the full bundle price!)  If you’re able to use a book or three as gifts, that’s more money saved (you know – money you don’t have to spend separately on gifts for those people).

So, if you’re not interested at all, you’re probably not asking this question.  But if you are interested in the bundle, chances are it’s a good value for you.

Did I miss your question?  Ask me in the comments!

This post is being shared at Works for Me Wednesday.