Book Updates - When Is It Free, When Is It Paid?

I believe that Logos provides updates to books for life. Of late, they have kindly released the Zondervan Bersion of Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics from Zondervan to those who owned the same book from Galaxie.

In a similar line, Christian Theology from Millard J Erickon 3rd Edition is on Pre-Pub. Will those who own the second edition get their books automatically updated?

Logos.com still permit existing owners of both the above books to order the new versions. A message clarifying what existing owners can expect will be helpful in both cases on the respective web pages.

In general, it will be helpful if Logos makes public the general policy in such situations - exactly when is a book update free and when do customers have to pay.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Rich DeRuiter

I believe that Logos provides updates to books for life. Of late, they have kindly released the Zondervan Bersion of Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics from Zondervan to those who owned the same book from Galaxie.

In a similar line, Christian Theology from Millard J Erickon 3rd Edition is on Pre-Pub. Will those who own the second edition get their books automatically updated?

Logos.com still permit existing owners of both the above books to order the new versions. A message clarifying what existing owners can expect will be helpful in both cases on the respective web pages.

In general, it will be helpful if Logos makes public the general policy in such situations - exactly when is a book update free and when do customers have to pay.

Logos will have to speak up for this particular update.

However, typically when Logos takes it upon itself to redo a work done by a company that no longer exists (like Galaxie), Logos often chooses to give them away to those with the previous version. Logos does not have to do this, and I don't expect them too. Then it's always a nice surprise when they do.

When another book publisher releases a new edition of a book to Logos, it is that publisher who sets the price and/or the policy. Also, my assumption in the situation you cite is that the 3rd edition would be a new purchase. Owning the first or the second edition will not necessarily qualify you to own the 3rd. But what changes from one edition to the next varies from a few fixes, to complete rewrites of sections. If this 3rd edition is substantially different from the 2nd you can expect to pay for it. If the 3rd just fixes a few typos and edits a few sentences, you may get it for free (but I wouldn't hold my breath).

Only Logos can say for sure, and it's possible they are still in discussions about this. In the mean time, if you really, really want the 3rd edition, the best policy is to bid now, and then cancel upon finding out that you will not have to buy it after all. Bidding now will give you the lowest price, if you do have to pay.

Mark Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/523318#Comment_523318

In the past most times a publisher releases new edition, they offer an upgrade price for those with the earlier edition. I can recall at least one new edition being given to us for free. Unless Logos responds with some specific info I'd anticipate paying an upgrade price.

JT (alabama24)

In general, it will be helpful if Logos makes public the general policy in such situations - exactly when is a book update free and when do customers have to pay.

Most of the time, it is fairly simple:

If it is a new resource, you have to pay for it. The 3rd edition is a new resource. The author and publisher expect to get paid for their work.
When Logos reworks an existing resource file, you should get the update for free. These aren't new resources, they are just new (or revised) Logos files. In the case of the Galaxie works, Logos wasn't thrilled with the quality and wanted to improve them. Logos feels you shouldn't have to pay twice for the same resource, so you get it free. The publisher and author were already paid when you purchased the resource in the first place.

Benjamin Varghese

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/523343#Comment_523343

Helpful clarifications, and always very grateful to Logos for one of the best value and top notch customer services they provide

JohnB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/523343#Comment_523343

I understand completely that when the publisher offers a new edition they expect to be paid as does Logos for completely re-working the tags in the new edition.

However, the publisher might feel (with encouragement from Logos) that giving a modest discount for existing users might be cost effective for them if it encourages more people to update. I would anticipate that they might want Logos to withdraw the old version from the customers who got the discount however.

I am well aware that this is not done with print versions but the whole process is so much easier to manage with the cloud management of a system like Logos.

NB.Mick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/523385#Comment_523385

the publisher might feel (with encouragement from Logos) that giving a modest discount for existing users might be cost effective for them if it encourages more people to update.

Surely this is the case and it's a win-win-win situation.

I would anticipate that they might want Logos to withdraw the old version from the customers who got the discount however.

This is a problem, since two different books are really different: customers would lose all highlights, notes etc they did in the previous work, since there's typically no automated way to transfer those to the new edition.

Due to cloud-syncing, Logos can at least see how many customers had worked in this way with the old version. However, I don't see who gains anything by withdrawing the old file. In rare cases, Logos even carries two versions in their live product catalog -I'd rather expect a publisher to have the old one removed from the store than from users' libraries.

JohnB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/523389#Comment_523389

I would anticipate that they might want Logos to withdraw the old version from the customers who got the discount however.

This is a problem, since two different books are really different: customers would lose all highlights, notes etc they did in the previous work, since there's typically no automated way to transfer those to the new edition.

Due to cloud-syncing, Logos can at least see how many customers had worked in this way with the old version. However, I don't see who gains anything by withdrawing the old file. In rare cases, Logos even carries two versions in their live product catalog -I'd rather expect a publisher to have the old one removed from the store than from users' libraries.

Point well taken.