Who is in charge of orthodox books?
I was just curious to find out if there was a person or a team involved in bringing in new orthodox books. I check for new ones very often but I am disappointed. How is it determined which ones to add to logos? Why is there so little books coming from the orthodox in logos as compared to protestant and roman catholic? How can I go about requesting more books, because I see no answers in this section of the forum? It would be great to know what publishers are being contacted and added to logos. What is actually being worked on to increase the Orthodox library that logos offers its customers. Maybe the info is here but I don't see it.
Comments
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Blair Laird said:
Why is there so little books coming from the orthodox in logos as compared to protestant and roman catholic?
The quick answer is the number of Faithlife Customers that are interested in Orthodox books.
Every book sold by Faithlife except perhaps for the first set to attract a new to group to the Faithlife family needs to go through the Community Pricing or the Pre Pub process. Community Pricing is for books prior to about 1920, that is out of copyright. Pre Pub is for all the rest. When a book is listed on Pre Pub a price is set by Faithlife and the Publisher. When enough current customers agree to buy the book to pay for the development for the book it goes into production. With Community Pricing there is no current Publisher so the current customers bid what they would pay for the book. And again it goes into production when enough have said the they would pay enough to fund the cost of production.
That system works for Faithlife as it keep Faithlife in business. This guarantees that they have enough customers to pay for the production. For many books aimed at protestant and roman catholic there are enough current customers interested to pay for the book.
But if the book interests only a small section of the current customers then it does not pass the Community Pricing or the Pre Pub test. And in some cases the lack of that very book is why there are so few current customers that want books of that kind, for example, an Orthodox book.
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David, (and I'm guessing from observation), quite a few books seem to sale thru the system with little or no customer involvement. My guess, limited processing costs. Then, there's the new prepay, which is for new high demand, get it quick books.
As regards Blair's question, his frustration is also for the restoration folks, jewish folks, east of Rome, and then moving into spanish, and so forth.
As regards best approach, within the mainstream, the suggestion forum and suggested books voting is possible but gets lost in so many. For traditions with a forum (eg Orthodox), posting here best (my guess, more visible).
I assume Orthodox is covered among the liturgical group ... they seem to avoid definite assignments per se ... workload, etc.
If I were Orthodox, I'd research a series to make up a small collection, affordable, hopefully an existing publisher ... looking to reduce Logos workload and risk. Then, for each, I'd explain, maybe some endorcements, and why a core Orthodox resource. I assume Orthodox expertise is likely difficult for Logos.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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I don't know if its this way with other faiths but I followed the link to the Orthodox blog and it has not been updated in a long time. This is why I am curious as to who is heading this up. There are basic books for the orthodox that are not even available through logos which seems odd. I would think the basic books for the faith would be added first. As customers we should be updated as to where faithlife is going with this part of the company but I can't find updates.
http://orthodox.logos.com/0 -
Blair Laird said:
I don't know if its this way with other faiths but I followed the link to the Orthodox blog and it has not been updated in a long time.
In the past, each denomination had its own Product Manager.
Verbum has a Product Manager (perhaps because it's a distinct application and website/store), but the other denominations are now managed by a team of people. There's no longer a dedicated person responsible for each specific blog, etc.
We all have resources we'd like to see in Logos, but this has generally not been a fast process, at times taking 5 or 6 years. Some very popular suggestions have never been acquired (but I don't think it's a lack of effort on Faithlife's part).
All we can do is keep making suggestions for resources we'd like to see added, drum up interest, then wait until necessary arrangements have been worked out, and enough of us have then bid or placed orders for the Community Pricing or Pre-Pub.
Thanks to FL for including Carta and a Hebrew audio bible in Logos 9!
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I believe that Daniel Motley is in charge of the Orthodox offerings at Faithlife, and Ben Amundgaard is the bible study products manager. I've asked them about this, in part because many of the books that I would find exceedingly useful in logos are not available, and he has indicated that it is a combination of low demand (which is a chicken and egg problem), and inability to convince certain publishers to allow them to produce their books.
If the publisher won't let Faithlife produce a digital copy, it doesn't matter how much we want it, and if there aren't enough people willing to buy to make production worthwhile it becomes a charity, not a business. Hopefully Ben or Daniel will pop in and have something to say.
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Daniel was the Baptist Product Manager, but I believe his current title is "Team Lead, Live Products."
Late last year, Ben had posted that "management of the denominational product lines is a group effort." I don't think anything has changed since then.
Thanks to FL for including Carta and a Hebrew audio bible in Logos 9!
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In an effort to help with this situation I sent an email to light n life publishing to see if they would be willing to partner with logos. As a long time user, I have a hard time purchasing books outside of the platform because of my current investment. If there is a not a dedicated Orthodox rep I don't see the library growing significantly. Hopefully, I hear back and they are willing. If so then I gotta figure out the next step. Maybe get my sales rep involved and he can point me to the right person. Dunno.. but I hope it works out.
https://www.light-n-life.com/0 -
Back when Gabe was in charge there was a mostly harmless way to self publish on logos, but I can't get anyone to help me now as I would like to help get more Coptic resources on logos that we are working on...
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I would love to see more coptic resources.. Orthodoxy is a huge part of Christianity, I really feel like there should be someone dedicated to Orthodox resources like verbum.
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Blair Laird said:
I was just curious to find out if there was a person or a team involved in bringing in new orthodox books.
Try contacting Craig St. Clair (Faithlife) He seems to get involved in many things.
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I sent the message.. Hopefully we can get the ball rolling on this.
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Hi All,
Please send me an email at ben (dot) amundgaard (at) faithlife (dot) com with any suggestions for Orthodox resources. While we don't have a dedicated Orthodox product manager at this time, as one of the only Orthodox folks on staff, I try to keep up with requests as they come in (you'll have to bear with me, though, as I don't have a lot of time to give it at the moment).
Dcn. Christopher has done a good job outlining some of the issues we face.
We are committed to having Orthodox resources available in Logos and will continue to grow our catalogue.
Senior Director, Content Products
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Thanks for taking the time to respond here Ben.
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