Are Christians on the cutting edge?
Are Christians actually on the cutting edge when it comes to technologies like ebooks? I don't have the numbers on our side but being buried most days within Libronix and BibleWorks my own little bubble makes it seems like Christians are more than willing to see their books committed to digital formats.
I have thousands of PDF's. Thousands of Libronix books and dozens and dozens of digital Bibles and resources in BibleWorks. But when it comes to secular authors getting their work published with bits and bytes there appears to be Resistance. In a recent article in the Indiana Gazette I read about this problem (in a digital format)
“Getting permission to release a book in electronic form can be as hard - or harder - than writing it.
``The Tolkien estate wanted to be absolutely confident that e-books were not something ephemeral,'' says David Roth-Ey, director of business development at HarperCollins UK, which announced last week that the late British author's work - among the world's most popular - would be available for downloads.
``We were finally able to convince the Tolkien estate that the e-book is a legitimate, widespread format.''
Tolkien's addition to the e-club fills a major gap, and, with e-books the fastest (and virtually only) growing sector of publishing, other authors and their estates have softened. ...The reasons are legal, financial and philosophical....``Some of the biggest names are still waiting for the market to prove itself,'' [Arthur] Klebanoff [of RosettaBooks, an e-book publisher] said.”
--Indiana Gazette : Tolkien's in, but e-library still lacking
Short sweet and to the point. As I leave this quick post behind in a flexible and free digital format and open another ebook to read, I'm grateful that the full benefit of technology is being put to use for the only book that really matters: The Bible.
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"The Tolkien estate wanted to be absolutely confident that e-books were not something ephemeral,''. Why I ask myself? So I try put myself in their frame of mind. Suppose I had inherited the copyright to some classic works, what would be the options that I had for them?
1. I could treasure them and keep them to myself (too late, they have been published many different times)
2. I could make sure the legacy of the author and the "classic" category of the works remains pristine, and unfettered by commercial degradation. (too late, they have been published in "Dime Store" novel format, and the rights have been sold to a movie producer, computer software companies, toy makers, board game makers, etc...)
3. I could make sure that i get every penny out of them, and control all creative rights in order to accomplish this goal.
I think that option three is the most obvious. And this is where electronic publishing has problems for the owner of the "rights". If a print publishing house comes to me in order to publish the works I own, I will want "up-front" money to cover the rights to the first printing, as well as standard royalties. With electronic publishing there is no "first printing", the book is produced in the format desired, and then put up for sale. Royalties come as the book is sold, which is good for both parties, even if it doesn't sell allot of copies.
Ephemeral or not, this is not a reasonable reason to not publish electronically. Especially the way Tolkien's works have been licensed (a purist might say prostituted) to whoever has the money.