One of our readers has alerted me that by 2000 book,
Truth Decay, is now available on Kindle! Well, well; it has been disembodied and distributed to screens (if anyone buys it). I wonder what my royalties are on this. My publisher has not told me anything about it.
I can't stand reading books on the screen, the more we move from the material leaves of books, the closer we get to loose electronic materials a la Wikipedia - that can be changed and taken as a reader wishes.
ReplyDeleteMy recent book Conversations with C.S. Lewis is also available on Kindle.
ReplyDeleteThere's a Kindle reader for iPhone/iPod touch, too, so at least there's opportunity for more people to read your book.
I wonder how the note/highlighting features are on the Kindle. I still prefer the printed editions of books. Some are friends, some are enemies, some are a bit of both, but once I get to know them well enough I can find just what I need by flipping through the pages.
I was thinking on the comment on iPhone, iPod touch and the like…to get more people to “read your book." Interestingly, it tends to create more spending on things that you just can’t live without. I ran across an interesting quote in a book I picked up for free (thank you Lord) from a library. It reads as follows…
ReplyDelete“If we go through the Sermon on the Mount, and those first talks of Jesus with his disciples, we cannot escape the conclusion that two primary attitudes which Jesus sought to establish in man were trust in God and freedom from a destroying preoccupation with things. 'all these things do the Gentiles seek' Jesus said. Or, as Moffatt translates it, 'Pagans make all that their aim in life.' This to Jesus was essential paganism. Against that preoccupation –‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God.’”(pp 162-163)
And that friend and neighbors, was written in 1930 by Halford E. Luccock, in the book "Jesus and the American Mind". He was a professor of Homiletics at Yale University Divinity School.
So the lesson here (other than “there is nothing new under the sun”) may well be, the hidden trap in being caught up in needing the newest and best gadget, instead of simply picking up a book; which is so satisfying to mark up with highlighter, and scribbling comments in the margins…which are interesting to read years later.
I am immensely grateful for the availability of great works of the past in electronic form, particularly well-scanned pdf books. At the same time, I weary of reading too much on a computer screen. The combination of wonderful information and a preference for books-in-the-hand has pushed me into do-it-yourself bookbinding, and now -- with a very modest outlay of time and money -- I can print and bind my own copies of rare and out-of-print books and then take them with me wherever I go.
ReplyDeleteSo far I've only done paperbacks, which are really very easy. But I'm looking into the details of making hardcovers.
In addition, for those who can't imagine making a binding jig (it's much easier than you think!), there is always Lulu, a service where you provide the pdf and (if you like) a cover design and they bind the book for you.
Of course, this is not something one can do with books that are still in copyright. I recommend buying used copies of one's favorite books. And that takes us back to Doug's suggestion of a library in one's home. Amen to that!
Re: Royalties: There's probably an "electronic rights" section within the royalty component of your contract with IVP. I'm not exactly sure how they would have worded it a decade ago, but ebook royalties these days average about 25% of a publisher's net income from those sales.
ReplyDelete