Faithlife: Please break up the C.S. Lewis collection!
The collection has been out over a year, but we still can't buy individual Lewis books. Who's responsible for this decision?
I've bought many of his books in Kindle format, but I'd rather have them in Logos. However I'm going to have to stick with Kindle if Faithlife won't/can't break up the collection.
MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540
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Yes please!Todd Phillips said:The collection has been out over a year, but we still can't buy individual Lewis books. Who's responsible for this decision?
I've bought many of his books in Kindle format, but I'd rather have them in Logos. However I'm going to have to stick with Kindle if Faithlife won't/can't break up the collection.
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I keep getting excited when I see the books each have individual entries in the Logos catalog, but then my hopes are dashed when I see there's no purchase button.
MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540
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I know it took a while for Faithlife to get these works by CS Lewis, Therefore it could be a publisher decision.
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Ronald Quick said:
. . . Therefore it could be a publisher decision.
I'll never figure out why a publisher would want fewer sales. I already have a lot of them on dead tree, there are a few I'd like though.
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I certainly wish I could buy them as individual volumes. As a collection they are way too expensive.
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Kenute P. Curry said:
I certainly wish I could buy them as individual volumes. As a collection they are way too expensive.
Agreed
Pastor Glenn Crouch
St Paul's Lutheran Church
Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia0 -
Ronald Quick said:
I know it took a while for Faithlife to get these works by CS Lewis, Therefore it could be a publisher decision.
In many (most?) countries outside the US Lewis's works are in the public domain...I'm not sure what kind of arrangement Logos made with the publisher but I hope they aren't paying them for purchases made by those who don't live where they have copyright. This would also mean Logos is free to sell them however they want elsewhere as long as they don't use the publishers artwork, etc.
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Tom Reynolds said:
but I hope they aren't paying them for purchases made by those who don't live where they have copyright.
Ah encouraging breaking the law? See https://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=5443 which will tell you that generally the laws of the seller's country not the buyers' countries applies.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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CS Lewis has been dead for only 53 years. I honestly doubt that the copyright has expired in a lot of countries.
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MJ. Smith said:Tom Reynolds said:
but I hope they aren't paying them for purchases made by those who don't live where they have copyright.
Ah encouraging breaking the law? See https://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=5443 which will tell you that generally the laws of the seller's country not the buyers' countries applies.
I'm not sure how it works these days with ebooks but try going to Amazon.ca and looking up Lewis's books. What price do you see? Does it offer you a dozen different Kindle versions for $1+? When I go to Amazon.com it gives me cheap pricing based on my IP address. e.g. I can buy the 7 book Narnia set plus Boxen as a collection for $0.75 USD from some little known publisher. Even the volumes from Harper Collins are $0.85 each so I presume they are indeed basing my price on where I am, not that I'm buying them from a US website. Unless the American price is also dirt cheap. I can't tell though as I don't have access to a US IP address. My point is that Amazon.com and .ca are separate companies in separate countries but they treat me like a Canadian on either website.
Either way I haven't bought the Lewis collection because it's far overpriced.
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Jan Krohn said:
CS Lewis has been dead for only 53 years. I honestly doubt that the copyright has expired in a lot of countries.
It used to be most countries had shorter copyright terms. Lewis's copyright has expired in a lot of countries. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa all have life +50 terms while the US and UK have life +70. You can see the full list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries%27_copyright_lengths.
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That's a helpful link!
Australia has life+50 years only for authors who died before 1955. Since we're in 2016, that quite moot...
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Tom Reynolds said:
I'm not sure how it works these days with ebooks but try going to Amazon.ca and looking up Lewis's books. What price do you see? Does it offer you a dozen different Kindle versions for $1+? When I go to Amazon.com it gives me cheap pricing based on my IP address.
There is a big difference in that Amazon has branches in a number of countries to that the Canadian branch of Amazon can offer Canadian copyright laws. However, if you were in Sarawak where they do not have a branch, you would have to apply the laws of the branch of Amazon that supplies the book.
BTW I don't show many third party reprints so I don't have the low price options ... although there appears to be a bug in the Amazon sort by price routine.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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What I'm saying is that Amazon.com is offering me works based on Canadian copyright law. If I was in Sarawak I presume that Amazon.com could also offer me works based on Sarawak copyright law based on my IP address (and CC address?) since that's what they're doing with .com.
Can you get this listing on Amazon.com? https://www.amazon.com/CHRONICLES-NARNIA-Collection-Childrens-Literature-ebook/dp/B01F9A5KXM It's for the Narnia collection for Kindle from some "publisher" for $0.56. It's doesn't say they're Canadian although there's another publisher called MapleLeafBooks which presumably is.
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The link you gave Tom Reynolds takes me to THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION, which is priced under $20.00
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Tom Reynolds said:
If I was in Sarawak I presume that Amazon.com could also offer me works based on Sarawak copyright law based on my IP address (and CC address?) since that's what they're doing with .com.
Unless they have state-based copyright laws, that would be Malaysian copyright law [8-|]
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Tom Reynolds said:
What I'm saying is that Amazon.com is offering me works based on Canadian copyright law. If I was in Sarawak I presume that Amazon.com could also offer me works based on Sarawak copyright law based on my IP address (and CC address?) since that's what they're doing with .com.
What I am saying is that they could do that only if they have a company/physical presence there.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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As these are official HarperCollins editions, anyone who wants them will have to pay the price--copyright really isn't a question for this particular collection. For copyright-free works, Faithlife would have to produce them manually from older editions--and that might be against their agreement with HarperCollins which is the only way to get them for US residents.
NevertheIess, I just want them available individually, and I'm still interested on hearing Faithlife's plans to break up the set.
MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540
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I second the motion!
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Amen!
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I'm about to buy The Abolition of Man....Please let me buy it in Logos and not Kindle.
MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540
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Tempted just to buy his letters on kindle if we're not going to be given any indication if/when this will be broken up.
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Puuuuleeeeeeeeeease?
I guess Faithlife must subscribe to the notion that if you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all.
MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540
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Todd Phillips said:
I'm about to buy The Abolition of Man....Please let me buy it in Logos and not Kindle.
I had to purchase Mere Christianity, Abolition of Man and Miracles for a class I'm taking. I also would have preferred the Logos version.
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I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned it but individual works are now available.
https://www.logos.com/products/search?q=c+s+lewis&Author=1804|C.+S.+Lewis&redirecttoauthor=true0 -
Eric Back said:
I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned it but individual works are now available.
https://www.logos.com/products/search?q=c+s+lewis&Author=1804|C.+S.+Lewis&redirecttoauthor=trueI'm not seeing any available for individual purchase?
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In fact, they specifically state that they aren't available or individual purchase:
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Quite right. I apologize. I saw them broken out individually with prices and failed to check further.
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I would love to be able to buy these books individually. I broke down and bought a couple of his books from Google books. I would really have preferred to get them here, but the entire collection is out of my reach financially.
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I wonder why they have the individual prices listed when they can only be purchased in a bundle? Confusing.
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I'm sure Faithlife would break up the set if they were allowed to do so.
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Its been some time since these were released. Certainly someone from Logos can tell us if we could ever expect to see them broken up.
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Ronald Quick said:
I'm sure Faithlife would break up the set if they were allowed to do so.
At some point we hope to offer them individually. At this point, we're in the same position as we have been. For various contractual/rights issues, we're not able to sell them individually.
Senior Director, Content Products
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Hi Ben
Thanks for getting back to us. It is frustrating for everyone I'm sure. I have 99.9% of my book collection in Logos and have to Go to Amazon for the odd Lewis Book. Good luck in your efforts to get them on an individual sale basis :-)
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This is not Faithlife nor the publisher's fault, it is the Lewis family. Take the issue up with them.
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Any chance on getting the Narnia series?
I just purchased them on Kindle, but would get them in Logos too if they were available.
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Thanks for the reply.
Its nice to hear from someone official, even if its not the answer I wanted. (but it was the answer I expected) [:)]
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Nothing about Logos infuriates me more than this topic. Lately I’ve been getting emails promoting discounts on the CSL sets. If I wanted the damned set I’d buy the damned set. I have a shelf full of hard copies. I want to be able to use Logos to read and search some of these. I”ll buy them individually... like I could with Kindle.... one at a time, but I’m NOT buying the full set at once just because some pinhead is so greedy they won’t let users buy what they want instead of an excessive number in a collection.
Like I said, this infuriates me. Stop sending me the “discount” on the collection.
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Ron Baughman said:
Nothing about Logos infuriates me more than this topic. Lately I’ve been getting emails promoting discounts on the CSL sets. If I wanted the damned set I’d buy the damned set. I have a shelf full of hard copies. I want to be able to use Logos to read and search some of these. I”ll buy them individually... like I could with Kindle.... one at a time, but I’m NOT buying the full set at once just because some pinhead is so greedy they won’t let users buy what they want instead of an excessive number in a collection.
Like I said, this infuriates me. Stop sending me the “discount” on the collection.
I understand your frustration, but cursing 🤬 won’t get the set broken up for individual sale any faster.
And if the set is “damned” then why in the world would you want to read “damned” material anyway? 😜
DAL
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To me it’s damned AS A SET. I believe it’s Satan himself that controls that decision.
I really doubt C.S. Lewis would have wanted it that way. If that were the case, then you’d only be able to buy the hard copies in sets. You’d only be able to buy them from Amazon in sets.
I don’t buy - for one second - that Faithlife couldn’t negotiate a better deal to market to Christians if they wanted to. Something has gotten in the way. I‘d really like to hear the truth.
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Ron Baughman said:
To me it’s damned AS A SET. I believe it’s Satan himself that controls that decision.
I really doubt C.S. Lewis would have wanted it that way. If that were the case, then you’d only be able to buy the hard copies in sets. You’d only be able to buy them from Amazon in sets.
I don’t buy - for one second - that Faithlife couldn’t negotiate a better deal to market to Christians if they wanted to. Something has gotten in the way. I‘d really like to hear the truth.
You shouldn't make assumptions like that. Publishers have a lot of power and then throw resellers like Amazon in the mix and you have a recipe for just this very thing.
More likely than not, it is probably something like the contract Amazon has with the publisher keeps other resellers from going in direct competition with them. Amazon and even Apple have been known to do this.
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I give up on Logos/Faithlife on this topic. I just bought a copy of Mere Christianity in an ebook format from Barnes and Noble. Now that I have an iPad Pro I can put logos and their nook app on the screen side by side. Or on the PC for that matter. I stand by earlier comments. I think this is the most irritating thing about Logos. Especially since they send me the occasional email promoting sale of the set.... The B&N version was only about $8. And yes, I’ll be buying more from them and less from logos.
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Ron Baughman said:
I believe it’s Satan himself that controls that decision.
I've had my frustrations with Logos / Faithlife over the years. At time's I have even been unfair in what I have said because I've allowed that frustration to rule. But to suggest Satan is controlling this decision... WOW. I am not sure whose decision you are implying is being controlled by Satan whether it be Faithlife, the publisher or someone else, but all I can say is WOW that's a big frustration.
I hope you can get through this frustration and continue to grow in the knowledge and grace of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory.
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Ron Baughman said:
I give up on Logos/Faithlife on this topic. I just bought a copy of Mere Christianity in an ebook format from Barnes and Noble. Now that I have an iPad Pro I can put logos and their nook app on the screen side by side. Or on the PC for that matter. I stand by earlier comments. I think this is the most irritating thing about Logos. Especially since they send me the occasional email promoting sale of the set.... The B&N version was only about $8. And yes, I’ll be buying more from them and less from logos.
Did you read what I said about publishers and other outlets contracts that truly might not allow Faithlife to sell them individually?
I have had many conversations with the top staff at Faithlife and I assure you they are men and women of integrity and truly serving in ministry through their business. If they could do it, they would.
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