Category Archives: Publishing

Publishing, Religion

Word up on the words in the Word

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Our friend Ori sent me this link today, about the upcoming really, really even newer revision of the New International Version of the Bible. The tone of the article is that they’re going to make it even more gender neutral, and that people who objected to the last “humankind” revision were complaining on purely ideological–not scholarly–grounds.

And over at Worldmag.com, I see this piece by Alisa Harris, linking to this article from Christianity Today, which talks about the same revision. The tone of this article is that they’re going to tone down the changes, and that the publisher recognizes the legitimate concerns of past critics.

Methinks, if you’re looking for a job, they’re hiring in the Spin Control Department over at Zondervan.

Me, I still sometimes use my old (pre-revision) NIV Study Bible, because the notes are excellent.

But in general, I’ve decided I prefer something a little more literal, like the New American Standard or the English Standard Version.

If I live long enough, I’ll probably just go back to the King James. Or the Geneva Bible, just to irritate people.

Blogs, Socials, Bookselling, Publishing, Reading

“Banned Books Week,” episode 743

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I hesitate to call Dennis Ingolfsland, of The Recliner Commentaries, a “fellow librarian,” since he’s the real thing and I’m an on-the-job-trained poseur. But I know enough to recommend this piece about the American Library Association’s “Banned Books Week.”

The fact is that there are no banned books in America. Maybe I missed it but I don’t recall seeing any articles in the Library Journal or American Libraries protesting that other religion and those other countries which really do ban books.

(Picture credit: Jupiter Images)

Publishing

The secret history of Times Roman?

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Do typeface fonts fascinate you the way they do me? Then you’ll enjoy this story from the Financial Times about a HUGE controversy raging now in the typesetting world. Typography expert Mike Parker is promoting a theory that the venerable Times New Roman font was not invented by the man traditional given credit for it. Instead, he contends, it was stolen from the forgotten work of an American naval and aeronautical designer.

…After a lifetime spent in typography, Parker was well aware of the controversy he was getting involved in: typography may present a genteel exterior, but it’s an art form punctuated by bitter rivalries and rampant plagiarism.

The case that Parker makes about the real origins of Times New Roman stands on narrow foundations. The sole piece of surviving evidence for his version of history is a brass pattern plate bearing a large capital letter B. He holds the plate up to show the familiar form of the letter, its characteristic curves and serifs. The point, he says, is that such pattern plates represent a technology that was not used after 1915. The creation of Times New Roman was announced in 1932.

I myself have strong feelings about fonts. In general, I don’t like sans serif fonts (the ones without little tails). My favorite fonts are those in which the capital “J” extends below the baseline.

Tip: Mirabilis.

Publishing

Selling books

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West Oversea

Today, like so many days, was about West Oversea (pictured above, in case you’ve forgotten what the cover looks like).

Our friend Dale Nelson (who is a gentleman and a scholar) posted the first reader review at Amazon.com today. With typical understatement, he compares my work favorably to that of Robert E. Howard and John Buchan. (My publisher tells me, by the way, that the book will soon be available directly on Amazon through their Advantage program. And Christianbook.com says they’ll have it in stock beginning mid-September).

I ordered a dozen copies for our campus bookstore a little while back, and today I sold out the last of them (I then ordered more). I’d already sold a few, but we’re running our annual Summer Institute of Theology just now, and Dr. John Eidsmoe, who wrote a blurb for me, is one of the instructors. He recommended the book to his class, with immediate retail results.

The fellow I talked to at Nordskog, when I called to re-order, told me they’ve been pleased by the “buzz” we’ve gotten on the blogs, and that they’ve had several orders as a result of them. So thanks particularly to our blogging friends.

Publishing, Writing

Are there ghost-writers in the sky?

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Alisa Harris, at the World Magazine blog, writes about the ethical question of pastors cribbing sermon outlines—sometimes whole homilies—from online sermon caches.

As an aside, she links to an article from bnet, about the use of ghostwriters in Christian publishing.

Such things are common in the industry. When my first novel, Erling’s Word (fair warning—you don’t need to buy that book if you have The Year of the Warrior. TYOTW incorporates it entirely in a double volume) was published by Baen, it came out the same month as the “first novel” by an actor who’d worked in a very famous science fiction TV series. Everybody knew, I think, that this actor hadn’t really written the book. Probably hadn’t even contributed much. A fledgeling author was listed as co-author, but it was understood that she’d done the real work, while the actor had contributed the considerable market value of his name. Continue reading Are there ghost-writers in the sky? →

Fiction, Publishing

Radio: Trends in Christian Fiction

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From Crossway Books blog: “Justin Taylor, Crossway’s Editorial Director, will be on the Albert Mohler Radio Program this afternoon [5:00 p.m. eastern]. Russell Moore will be guest hosting a discussion on Christian-fiction publishing trends and what they reveal about Christian culture.”

Authors, Fiction, Publishing

New Books by Dead Authors

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Slate’s Juliet Lapidos reports she has read the unauthorized sequel to Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and that we needn’t bother with it. “California’s allusions contain little charm, but his original material is far worse,” she says.

That isn’t really a book from a dead author. In fact, Salinger isn’t dead and doesn’t like the book. But a real dead author has a new book coming. An unfinished work by Graham Greene, newly discovered at the author’s archive in the University of Texas, will be released in The Strand as a serial, and someone is to be commissioned to write the ending. The Strand has published other lost works previously. (via ArtsJournal)