You don’t have to believe in coincidence to be struck by the way things tend to coincide.

I’ve been busy these days, working on an expanded and updated edition of Writing the Novel from Plot to Print. The book’s been a leader in its field since 1978, but a few things have changed since then. (I thought I was technologically advanced because my Smith-Corona Portable had an automatic carriage return. I was still getting used to it, and sometimes I’d bat the air with my left hand, trying to perform the function manually.)

But you digress, LB.

I do, don’t I? Point is the book’s still sound, but there’s a lot missing. So I’ve been spending a couple of hours a day, going through each chapter in turn, leaving the original text essentially unchanged but adding new material where it seems indicated. I’ve probably added ten or fifteen thousand words to the body of the book.

That was the easy part, or at least the obvious part. A few days ago I ran out of text to diddle with, and it was time to break new ground. So I wrote a chapter on the phenomenon of self-publishing, and why Gentle Reader might be well advised to go that route. And I followed that with a chapter on why that might not be such a good idea after all. Like everything else, It Depends—and writers who read both chapters may be well positioned to make their own decision. (The next chapter, which I’d be writing now if I weren’t writing this, will talk about how to publish your own work.)

One reason not to self-publish is that you won’t have a professional team to promote your book. And one reason to go ahead anyhow is that every day brings new promotional opportunities for the indie author.

Okay, I get it. But where does the coincidence come in?

Right here.

A few weeks ago, my first very own indie (i.e., self-published) book, The Night and the Music, was selected for the Dark Justice StoryBundle. Along with nine other books by nine other indie authors, it’s available for a very limited time at what strike me as irresistible terms.

Oh, please. I can resist anything.

But do you really want to? See, here’s the deal. You name your own price.

C’mon.

Really. If you figure $4.99 is a reasonable price for an ebook (and it’s typical of indies, which makes it less than half the average cost of traditionally-published ebooks) then a fair price for this deal would be $49.90. Pay half of that and you’ll be a genuine hero. Pay anything and you’ll be genuine winner.

And I get what exactly?

Ten excellent ebooks by Rebecca Cantrell, Julie Hyzy, David DeLee, Kris Nelscott, Libby Fischer Hellmann, Patrice Greenwood, J. Daniel Sawyer, Melissa Yi, and Dean Wesley Smith—and, um, some dude with my initials. You probably know some of these writers, and you’ve heard of a couple of others, and a few are brand new to you. And that’s the whole point, because the incentive for the writers is to get their work into the hands of new readers.

Like me, for instance.

There you go. And, just as I was writing about promotional opportunities for the self-published, the Dark Justice story bundle went live. Click on the link and you’ll learn more about these writers and their books, and you’ll be able to reward independence and initiative while loading up your Kindle or Nook or iPad or Kobo Reader or Keurig Coffee Maker with ten truly excellent books. Go ahead, do it now. I can wait.

…Okay, I’m back.

And?

What you figured. I went for it.

A good deal, innit? What did you decide to pay? And did you get all ten books?And—

Leave me alone, will you? I’ve got reading to do.

Okay. I’ll leave you alone. I’ll leave all of y’all alone. I’ve got writing to do.