Amazon is developing an opportunities to publish books, which it has been doing for a couple years, and some major publishers have announced their plan to sell books and e-books directly. Some of this may be reinventing the wheel, but haven’t some people made a lot of money reinventing things? I think they have.
Category Archives: Publishing
Of e-books and Vikings
C. J. Box, on the Hugh Hewitt Show, just mentioned that “You can’t autograph a Kindle.”
I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that that was an angle on electronic publishing that I hadn’t considered. I kind of like signing autographs. Makes me feel like a big shot. I suppose authors will have to come up with some kind of cards that they can sign, so fans can collect them like baseball cards.
Another complication that had occurred to me is that you can’t lend an electronic book. The great era of loaning books you love to your friends is going away, or at least enjoying increased mobility.
On the other hand, as poets have oft lamented, even the best of friends tend sometimes to not return beloved books.
And no, I’m not thinking of anyone specifically. Offhand, I can’t think of anyone who’s got a book of mine. (It helps to have very few friends.)
OK, there’s one, but that’s a relative, and no one expects much from relatives.
I made a radical decision today (by my personal, low, standards). I decided to attend a Viking reenactment event down in Missouri, in late April. A fellow I know (he’s commented on this blog once or twice) owns a farm down there where he’s building a Viking fort. There’s a hall and another building, and it’s an ongoing project. He holds a spring and a fall open event, where the authenticity standards are low enough for me to squeak in, and he’s asked me to come for a couple years. I even get to sell books.
I’ve never gone before, probably because I have a fixed idea in my head that Missouri is a long, long way away. I lived in Missouri (though somewhat further south) for a year long ago, and got kind of tired of the length of the drive back to Minnesota. But since I drove to Chicago last fall, and go to Minot every year, I really don’t have a good excuse for avoiding northeastern Missouri. All you’ve got to do is cross Iowa, and you’re pretty much there, if the boredom doesn’t kill you.
What I found interesting was the decision-making process. I hemmed and hawed, argued pros and cons, and generally dithered. Then it occurred to me to pray about it.
The moment I prayed, I felt the answer in my spirit—“Yes, you must go.”
Now as you know, I’m no great advocate of feelings-based decision-making. But this seemed (and I emphasized seemed) to be a genuine answer from God.
I shall watch how things work out now, to test whether my sensitivity to the Spirit is better or worse than I think.
Luther: “Who would doubt God’s ability to do that?”
Yesterday, I saw that Zondervan had dropped Rob Bell’s book proposal back when it was in process. The implication given for the relationship break was the book or author did not fit with Zondervan’s mission to “glorify Jesus Christ and promote biblical principles.” That book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived
I mention it here in part because reviewers are taking Bell to task for misapplying the words of Martin Luther. Our favorite Reformer wrote: “It would be quite a different question whether God can impart faith to some in the hour of death or after death so that these people could be saved through faith. Who would doubt God’s ability to do that?” I’m told Bell believes this is a good example of those who believe or are open to believing the Lord will save people after their death.
Two great bloggers, whose shoes I am not worthy to untie, point to Carl Trueman’s article criticizing Bell’s quotation. The posts citing this one come from Jared Wilson: “So Luther’s letter is a clear denial of the idea that God will save faithless people after they die, but Bell quotes one or two lines to argue that Luther believes the opposite. At best this is sloppy; at worst, it is deceptive. I believe the worst.” And Justin Taylor: “To be sure, Bell’s misuse of Luther is relatively minor compared with, say, his handing of Scripture (which is among the worst I have ever seen in a published book).”
If you haven’t read Tim Challies and Aaron Armstrong’s review of Bell’s book, Love Wins
All of that to say, of course, that Bell is the next Billy Graham, and you should join his church. I don’t see how anyone could argue with that conclusion.
Love Relief
Relief Journal, a Christian fiction quarterly, is raising funds for this year. They say, “If every person that visited our website last month gave us $1, we would have more than enough money to meet our campaign goal.” They are at 13% now.
The Bible in English, #309
The King James Bible, published in 1611, was the 309th edition of the Bible in English at that time. For reference, the first hand-written manuscripts of the Bible in English were composed by John Wycliffe in the 1380s.
Waiting for Acceptance
“One project does not define a career” as Jennifer Hiller tells us in this short story of rejection.
Me on the radio, Baen authors at Pajamas Media
It’s getting almost as if you can’t turn on the radio without hearing my voice these days. I’m happy to report that I’ve been scheduled for an interview on one of my favorite shows in the world—The Northern Alliance Radio Show on WWTC AM 1280 in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Mitch Berg, who blogs at Shot In the Dark, invited me to appear this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Podcast links are archived here, so you can download it if you’re not fortunate enough to live in the Center of Things.
Is Science Fiction getting more conservative? This is the question asked by Patrick Richardson at Pajamas Media. He interviews four contemporary stars—Jerry Pournelle, Orson Scott Card, and two writers for my former publisher, Tom Kratman and Larry Correia of Baen Books.
Larry Correia is a Facebook friend of mine. They left out my best novelist friend, though, Michael Z. Williamson (probably because they’re afraid of him).
But even though they no longer publish me, let me say for the record, Baen is a great house, run by smart people.
Cruciform Press
“What would a book-publishing company for gospel-centered Christians look like if it began with the realities of 21st century technology?” Look no further. This is a new publisher formed by Kevin Meath, Bob Bevington, and Tim Challies over the passed year. My cousin, Jimmy Davis, has a book roughly on the same subject as his blog coming out the first of April.
130 Free eBooks for Reader Devices
Kaplan Books is offering 130 free ebooks for your Nook, Sony eReader, Kindle or iPad now through January 17.
Altering Old Stories to Suit the Modern
More on altering old texts to suit modern sensibilities:
Efforts to sanitize classic literature have a long, undistinguished history. Everything from Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” to Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” have been challenged or have suffered at the hands of uptight editors. There have even been purified versions of the Bible (all that sex and violence!). Sometimes the urge to expurgate (if not outright ban) comes from the right, evangelicals and conservatives, worried about blasphemy, profane language and sexual innuendo. Fundamentalist groups, for instance, have tried to have dictionaries banned because of definitions offered for words like hot, tail, ball, and nuts.
Makes one want to use language, if one were wont to do so.