Pre-Pub Changes

alabama24 said:

by having fewer prepubs, users will be more concentrated on a few items, causing them to go into production more quickly

If this is FL's logic, I don't see how it makes any sense.

FE: If there are 10 resources on pre-pub, and three are of interest to me, and I place bids on those three; then FL pulls one of them, I'm not going to go bid on one of the resources with which I have no interest.

I'm the same way.

Doc B said:

FE: If there are 10 resources on pre-pub, and three are of interest to me, and I place bids on those three; then FL pulls one of them, I'm not going to go bid on one of the resources with which I have no interest.

Looking at it another way, many of us have had such a long pre-pub orders list that we've started to be much more discerning about new pre-pub orders, because we know we couldn't afford to buy everything on our pre-pub list. If I have fewer existing pre-pub orders (and therefore I'm within my book budget), I'm going to be more likely to order a book that's a "probably" than I would if I had $7,000 of pre-pubs already ordered.

Mark Barnes said:

https://unbound.co.uk/ takes that to an even deeper level. It's Kickstarter for books.

Bob Pritchett started a thread a few days ago about using Kickstarter for various FL initiatives. I found that interesting, because only a few days before that I had been thinking of reaching out to FL to find out what it would cost to fund a few pre-pubs that I wanted sooner rather than later. There were 2-3 pre-pubs that, depending on actual cost, I may have been willing to foot the bill to get.

Now, less than a week after I had that thought, they cancel a bunch of pre-pubs, including 1-2 that were in my mind regarding funding. If Kickstarter was already in Bob's mind, I'm not sure why FL couldn't have picked a few pre-pubs to try Kickstarting to see if that was viable.

#StillDisappointed

Donnie

Matthew Miller said:

5. Where’s the email? The email has not been sent. It will be coming very soon, hopefully by EOD today.

I suspect that you would likely do this anyway without a request for it, but when it is sent, would you please post to this thread? Thank you.

George Somsel said:

Stephen Steele said:

Mark Barnes said:

I'm disappointed that several of my pre-pubs have been cancelled — Calvin's Sermons, for example, but I'm not surprised. Some of them had been languishing for years without much traction.

Very disappointed that Calvin's sermons have been cancelled!

Anything by Calvin is, quite naturally, a classic.  I think of the line in "Field of Dreams":  "If you build it, they will come."

It is a real shame that this collection has been binned (although I know the same could be said of other now abandoned pre-publications). I would have thought, however, that this particular collection would have enhanced the appeal of the Logos ecosystem.

George Somsel said:

Matthew Miller said:

The emails have been sent. 

Again, my apologies for the delay. We just wanted to make sure we got everyone the information they needed. Thanks for your patience!

Yeah, I lost almost $1600.00 in prepubs.

And that's $1600 bucks you just saved; of course, if you look at it from the bright side

DAL

I'm quite frustrated today that 16 out of 27 items from my list have just been cancelled outright. Some I can easily live without, but there were a couple in particular that I really wanted, would probably have paid a fair bit for them too, but they were so highly specialised that I couldn't see how the pre-pub method would have gathered enough interest.

From what I can see, this particularly impacts scholarly sources which tend to be more specialised and less broadly appealing. I was just about talk to a class about scripture related resources in general and had in my notes how Logos has worked for me as a scholarly resource ... I'll be qualifying what I say now in that regard. I always had my doubts about the pre-pub method employed in regards to certain works, this all but confirms it in my mind. Will see how things unfold, but for now, this certainly changes how I view the Logos platform, and it is a diminished one no doubt.

Don't get me wrong, I still think Logos is a great tool for what it is, will continue to use it regularly, but I was starting to see it as something robust enough to replace a good part of my physical bookshelf. Just need to re-think what the system is now and reduce my expectations as such.

Denise said:

I didn't loose a single one.

Neither did I.

With at least 1200 Pre-pubs still remaining they still are  REALLY just "Community pricing." 1200 AFTER the "purge."

[And there are still about 480 Community Pricing candidates that have so far escaped the latest "purge."].

How can anyone keep track of that many?

It was not too long ago that Pre-pubs were just that--pre-pub's. Period. And there were way less than even the 480 languishing on the present day Community Pricing.

Years ago, many Pre-Pubs were "set completions." Others were up-to-date "can't miss" recent members of "best-selling" lists. -- I do not remember any not making it. 

But the decision to turn them into another giant glorified Community Pricing  hodgepodge [including potential "bundles"]  ruined the program.

I immediately quit watching. No time.

[My sincere regrets to those of you who lost potential favorites].

SteveF said:

Denise said:

I didn't loose a single one.

Neither did I.

With at least 1200 Pre-pubs still remaining they still are  REALLY just "Community pricing." 1200 AFTER the "purge."

[And there are still about 480 Community Pricing candidates that have so far escaped the latest "purge."].

How can anyone keep track of that many?

It was not too long ago that Pre-pubs were just that--pre-pub's. Period. And there were way less than even the 480 languishing on the present day Community Pricing.

Years ago, many Pre-Pubs were "set completions." Others were up-to-date "can't miss" recent members of "best-selling" lists. -- I do not remember any not making it. 

But the decision to turn them into another giant glorified Community Pricing  hodgepodge [including potential "bundles"]  ruined the program.

I immediately quit watching. No time.

[My sincere regrets to those of you who lost potential favorites].

 

Yes some logic to that. You identify the problem that what the pre-pubs were and what they became and I think this messed with some people's expectations. I for one placed too much hope in the pre-pubs when really it just became a wishful thinking lists. People like myself who are now disappointed are so, at least in part, because we just assumed that there was at least some commitment to acquiring all the books in the pre-pub system. Really there was nothing of the sort, just "a throw it out there and if it's worth our while (i.e. our time/money) then we'll do it". They were not interested in the product for the product's sake so to speak, regardless of how important it is to a particular group or area of study.

In that vein, as you say, a reduced pre-pub list is a good idea. Among other things, it keeps expectations in check.

Charlene said:

I won't be taking the money that "I saved" and buy something else. I only buy what I am interested in; I don't buy just for the sake of buying.

Well said. Exactly my sentiments. I was kind of taken aback that they suggested turning around and buying more in the email.