Today we officially launched Free Bundle Charts, a reimagined weekly bestseller list focused on which books are being read and commented the most, not which books have sold the most to bookstores.

From our newsletter:

Best-Seller lists have always been surrounded by scandals in the publishing industry, and they seldomly reflect people’s real choices and preferences when it comes to reading.

What makes our list different is we do not list books based solely on how many sales they had during the week but on the impact they had on us, the readers. Places like Reddit, Good Reads, and even Podcasts count towards a book’s position in our list.

This allows us to level up the playing field for books from self-published authors, big trade publishers, and small presses alike. It also allows us, the readers, to become directly involved in the selection process.

Key Free Bundle Charts features include:

What is really being read: Free Bundle Charts Top 5 Most Recommended is the first list of its kind to rank books and comics by their popularity – giving readers everywhere the opportunity to actually see what is being read and recommended online every week.

A diverse offer in fiction: Our Top 5 Most Recommended includes recommendations for books and comics from trade published authors (namely, part of the big 5, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Group, Random House, and Simon & Schuster) and self-published authors alike, thus creating a more diverse and compelling offer in fiction.

Curated recommendations: Some of our Free Bundle Charts are being curated by famous authors and screenwriters.

Testing Phase

As a part of the launching campaign, we ask people online to help us calibrate our in-house artificial intelligence algorithm by posting their favorite book of the week.

If you want to join the test, simply Tweet a book you recommend this week, followed by the #FreeBundleCharts hashtag, as this reader did:

This week, I recommend The Player of Games, by Iain M Banks #FreeBundleCharts

— Jon South (@phlebasjon) March 12, 2021

We will be running tests during the entire month to ensure a diverse and correct representation of titles in the U.S., and once that is secured, we will include aditional markets.

As we promised in our post Roadmap for 2021, we are releasing Premium themed Digital Cards this quarter exclusively through our newsletter. This first one-card pack features the classic Hetzel cover from the author Jules Verne from the Hetzel Collection.

For those who do not know Hetzel’s story, he not only published Jules Verne but discovered the man and his work. His books are among the most beautiful pieces of artwork you will find in print format. Here’s a bit from Wikipedia about them:

Originally, there were three editions: one economical, without illustrations; another one in small format, with a few illustrations; and a third one in a bigger in-octavo format and richly illustrated. It is the last edition that is now very popular among book collectors

This first Premium-themed Digital Card is themed after one of Hetzel’s covers and includes one significant illustration from the book you cannot miss! Subscribe to our newsletter for this and more upcoming cards!

Starting this year, we are re-arranging our publishing schedule to include one issue every three months, plus our Halloween special. You can expect a new magazine issue to be published in March, June, September, October (Halloween Special), and December. We have created a new calendar at the top of our Magazine Issues page to make it easy for everyone to know when the next issue is coming.

Until the first issue of 2021 gets published next March, we will be launching new premium themed Digital Trading Cards. The announcement for each new batch of the cards, their themes, and concepts will be made in the next few days.

In the second quarter, we will be introducing our Rewards Program. Each time you read Free Bundle Magazine, you will automatically be rewarded with points. The more you read, the more points you will earn towards exclusive offers, discounts, and downloadable content.

After the success of Through The Gates of Madness, we are working on launching more original productions, which will be announced soon. Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to hear about what will be coming before anyone else.

As part of an ongoing effort to make Fantasy & Sci-Fi available to everyone worldwide, from this moment on, you can find every issue of Free Bundle Magazine on the Internet Archive, perpetually. We already support Amazon Kindle and Scribd, the world’s largest digital library. Still, by proudly being part of the Internet Archive pages, we are one step closer to our founding mission: to diffuse and promote the fantasy and science fiction genres in all their forms.

Getting Free Bundle Magazine on the Internet Archive was not as easy as it sounds; the tools they provide are not exactly intuitive. In fact, they can be very confusing. Thankfully, there is a fantastic community of archivists who have helped us iron out the details. Now, every Free Bundle Magazine issue will show up with only a few minutes of delay regarding the other platforms.

Currently, the Free Bundle is available on:

• Scribd
• Amazon Kindle
• Internet Archive
• Free Bundle Website
• Downloadable Adobe PDF (Portable File Document)
• Google News & Magazines (coming soon)

We are actively working on getting our magazine to even more places this year, so stay tuned!