Books Coming Off Pre-pub

pk47
pk47 Member Posts: 119 ✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum

I'm having a difficult time understanding the process of when/how books come off pre-pub. 

It feels very arbitrary and subjective at the moment. 

Some books stay on pre-pub for 2 months and get shipped. 

Other books are over a year now. 

Richard Hays volume "Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul" has been in production for over 9 months and no sign of it shipping. 

This could be said about a number of other books. 

I'm patiently waiting but it's difficult seeing dozens of books come into pre-pub this year and already become available for purchase. 

Could we provide some general estimates? 1st quarter, 2nd quarter, etc. That way we can decide to wait or buy from another seller. 

Thank you 

Comments

  • DMB
    DMB Member Posts: 14,266 ✭✭✭✭

    Doubt that gets any traction.

    A prepub is sometimes a proposal (no real contacting etc in play), sometimes already in production at prepub posting (and now prepay), some with easily tagged digital images from the publisher, etc. and some a wait for an image, contract, etc. Then you have priorities (staff knowlegability, vacations, turnover, etc.)

    Chances are good they have regular reports highlighting laggers, and teeth grinding.

    But 'years' seems a touch unbelievable.

    "If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.

  • JT (alabama24)
    JT (alabama24) MVP Posts: 36,523

    pk47 said:Could we provide some general estimates?

    As a general rule, FL doesn't provide timelines for features or resources. There are too many variables and if guesstimates don't prove accurate, FL is accused of "breaking promises." 

    pk47 said:

    I'm having a difficult time understanding the process of when/how books come off pre-pub.

    As I mentioned above, there are too many variables. 

    • How popular is the resource? Are there thousands of people clamoring or five? 
    • How much work is needed? Is it largely auto converted and a simple quality check inspection needed, or will it require hours and hours of manual tagging? 
    • How much profit is the resource likely to bring in? 
    • Is one of the schools with agreements with Logos waiting for the resource to be used as a textbook? 
    • Was the book part of a bundle? 

    All of these things play a part. I know it doesn't help figure things out, but it should help explain why some books go through more quickly than others. 

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  • Danny Parker
    Danny Parker Member Posts: 437 ✭✭

    Yes, once upon a time, Faithlife provided guess-ta-ments for prepubs - often out 6 months. But whenever a schedule shifted the criticisms were as JT said, 'broken promises'. The result is that now a hard schedule of only those almost certain dates of 1 month out are all that we see. We have created our own problem because of our tendency to complain and make radically negative statements. Faithlife now tries to be certain before listing a date.

    It often amazes me that Christian leaders can show so little grace and understanding. Sorry, a pet peeve of mine.