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appleman2006 wrote:Lester. I really believe that one of the greatest things you could do for the conservative Mennonite Church as a whole would be to write a book on this subject. I know there are many books written on this subject but I think there are people that would take the truth from you much sooner than from some out there.
I believe this so strongly I would be willing to buy a copy for every family in our church and perhaps every leader within our fellowship here in Ontario.
BTW I too use the ESV as my regular reading Bible and had thought I was maybe one of the few conservative Mennonites that actually found value in the Message.

Hmm. Thanks for the confidence. Maybe you'd finance me to self publish it, as well?

It would need to be self published. I asked CLP if I could include the ESV text of Ecclesiastes in the book I'm working on, but they said no. Not if they publish it. I almost considered self publishing it because of that. But I also know that this would be a pretty big pill for a major part of my current audience. Not saying it couldn't work, but a book on Ecclesiastes is not a real good prospect to hit the NYT top ten listing to start with. If I alienate my audience on top of that, I might as well just quit right now!

I've done some research on self publishing. It's pretty costly if you're going to do it right, and it's out of my reach at this point. I suspect that I might end up taking that route, if I get the chance to write some of the books I'm thinking of.

appleman2006 wrote:Lester. I really believe that one of the greatest things you could do for the conservative Mennonite Church as a whole would be to write a book on this subject. I know there are many books written on this subject but I think there are people that would take the truth from you much sooner than from some out there.
I believe this so strongly I would be willing to buy a copy for every family in our church and perhaps every leader within our fellowship here in Ontario.
BTW I too use the ESV as my regular reading Bible and had thought I was maybe one of the few conservative Mennonites that actually found value in the Message.

I agree. I think that a sound argument should be made to the conservative Anabaptist community that it is high time for modern Bible translations to replace the KJV as the primary version.

I don't know if a conservative publisher would print it. But if it is well done, a self-published book just might succeed. It could be more of a booklet than a major work.

Another method to effect change is to just start doing it. I believe that once people have listened to modern versions read and exposited well, the clarity and power of updated language provide all the evidence you need.

I feel fairly strongly that one of the biggest problems in many church services is the poor quality of oral reading of the biblical text. And it is only going to get worse unless we use better translations and train our young people to read orally with excellence.

Totally agree Mike.

I in no way could pay for the self publishing myself but I certainly would consider helping and I am guessing I could find a few more willing contributors. I am disappointed That CLP would take a stance such as that. Jim Goring would of been even more disappointed.

appleman2006 wrote:Totally agree Mike.

I in no way could pay for the self publishing myself but I certainly would consider helping and I am guessing I could find a few more willing contributors. I am disappointed That CLP would take a stance such as that. Jim Goring would of been even more disappointed.

As far as self publishing goes, it's around a thousand dollars or so for an editor and another about $3K for setup and a marketing package. So you could have it on Amazon for less than $5K, depending on the package you choose. The books would be Kindle and print on demand. Since the print books are POD, you don't have to pay for inventory. If you buy the right package they also go into book stores.

I also talked with Westbow publishers. They are a subsidiary of Nelson and Zondervan. If a self published book sells well it gets picked up by the parent publisher. Costs are similar. The coach I talked to said that if a book sold as well as God and Uncle Dale has sold, Nelson or Zondervan would grab it for sure. Which would definitely get you foot in the door. But you have to do a lot of marketing yourself if you really want it to be successful.

Talk to somebody from Shippensburg like Edsel or John D. Maybe Benchmark Press would print it or have some helpful info on getting it printed.

What about creating an e-book for download thereby skipping the other upfront $$ processes?

Better yet, what about Lester setting up his own publishing company with a website of e-books that can be downloaded for a price? Then Lester could publish easily as well as become an editor and provide a venue for other authors? I personally believe it would enrich the genres measurably.

lesterb wrote:

appleman2006 wrote:Totally agree Mike.

I in no way could pay for the self publishing myself but I certainly would consider helping and I am guessing I could find a few more willing contributors. I am disappointed That CLP would take a stance such as that. Jim Goring would of been even more disappointed.

As far as self publishing goes, it's around a thousand dollars or so for an editor and another about $3K for setup and a marketing package. So you could have it on Amazon for less than $5K, depending on the package you choose. The books would be Kindle and print on demand. Since the print books are POD, you don't have to pay for inventory. If you buy the right package they also go into book stores.

I also talked with Westbow publishers. They are a subsidiary of Nelson and Zondervan. If a self published book sells well it gets picked up by the parent publisher. Costs are similar. The coach I talked to said that if a book sold as well as God and Uncle Dale has sold, Nelson or Zondervan would grab it for sure. Which would definitely get you foot in the door. But you have to do a lot of marketing yourself if you really want it to be successful.

Don't you think your market for a book like this, especially if it uses the ESV text, would be a substantially different market compared with the type of folks that picked up God and Uncle Dale?

ken_sylvania wrote:

lesterb wrote:

appleman2006 wrote:Totally agree Mike.

I in no way could pay for the self publishing myself but I certainly would consider helping and I am guessing I could find a few more willing contributors. I am disappointed That CLP would take a stance such as that. Jim Goring would of been even more disappointed.

As far as self publishing goes, it's around a thousand dollars or so for an editor and another about $3K for setup and a marketing package. So you could have it on Amazon for less than $5K, depending on the package you choose. The books would be Kindle and print on demand. Since the print books are POD, you don't have to pay for inventory. If you buy the right package they also go into book stores.

I also talked with Westbow publishers. They are a subsidiary of Nelson and Zondervan. If a self published book sells well it gets picked up by the parent publisher. Costs are similar. The coach I talked to said that if a book sold as well as God and Uncle Dale has sold, Nelson or Zondervan would grab it for sure. Which would definitely get you foot in the door. But you have to do a lot of marketing yourself if you really want it to be successful.

Don't you think your market for a book like this, especially if it uses the ESV text, would be a substantially different market compared with the type of folks that picked up God and Uncle Dale?

Probably true.

Bootstrap wrote:

Chris wrote:I seriously lean towards the KJV in English but reference the Strong's interlinear. I do think there are many more errors on the original intent in many of the other versions. These things can make a serious difference. I think King James did a very good job, but strong's MAY be more accurate.

For word meanings, Strong's simply tells you how the word was translated into the KJV, no more, no less. So it won't be more accurate than the KJV. And it's usually less accurate, because the KJV translators were looking at the Greek in context in a way that you can't unless you know Greek.

If you don't read Greek, not with an interlinear but the same way you read English, I don't know how you can tell if there are more errors on the original intent in the other versions.

I've wondered already how many times some dictionaries simply give the meaning that the translator used rather than the actual meaning, or they may add the meaning. I can't think of an example off hand, but I've noticed cases where one meaning (the one used in the KJV) was given and then a group of other meanings that seemed unrelated. I don't think that is fair to the student, and is one reason that I seldom use Strong's, except sometimes for a second opinion.

But everyone has their own way of doing things.

I tend to use Thayer's for Greek definitions and BDB for Hebrew. But I get about as much help by comparing versions. Right now I have the KJV, the ESV, the NET, and the NLT side by side on my screen. That's another nice feature of E-sword.

Some of the rest of you, What are your favorite resources?

MaxPC wrote:What about creating an e-book for download thereby skipping the other upfront $$ processes?

Better yet, what about Lester setting up his own publishing company with a website of e-books that can be downloaded for a price? Then Lester could publish easily as well as become an editor and provide a venue for other authors? I personally believe it would enrich the genres measurably.

I've thought of some of these things...