Digital Readers, Printed Books, and Audio Versions

Digital Readers

You may be aware that Kindle and most major e-reader competitors (like Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play Books) can intake pdf files. Therefore, you can use the pdfs of my books to read on those devices.

Printed Books

I’m also happy to report that a company called Lulu (and, presumably, its competitors) have a way for you to get printed versions of my books – both hardback and paper. All that is required is a…(drum roll)…pdf. I was made a aware of this recently and just yesterday ordered a hardback version of The Duty of a Man. Lulu is charging me $12.22 for the book, $5.69 for shipping, and $1.26 for tax. That totals to $19.17, which amazes me.

Granted, DM is a small book, but they say it will only cost me $15.40 for a hardback version of The Biblical Case for Everyone Going to Heaven which is the normal size of a hardcover non-fiction book. I don’t know what the total will be with shipping and tax added, but consider that the average price for a new hardcover non-fiction book typically falls in the $25 to $35 range apart from any shipping or tax! I have no idea how the manufacturing economics work out, but I am not going to ask them to raise their price.

I chose the cheapest shipping option, so it will take 13-16 days before I can examine the quality of the book, but a current customer of theirs who told me about them expresses satisfaction with all the books purchased there so far. Maybe their books won’t hold up as well over time as mass-manufactured books, but their commercial success so far indicates that whatever difference exists is being found acceptable by the marketplace.

(In case it might help you, here is a pdf cover facsimile for The Biblical Case for Everyone Going to Heaven produced by a fellow reader that you may be able to use with Lulu or its competitors; I know Lulu allows you to design your own or upload an existing design like this one.)

A few points to add:

• I’m not plugging Lulu. It’s just that I have so little experience with this industry, and all of it is with Lulu. Otherwise, I’d recommend specific competitors, too.
• Other than having purchased this one book from Lulu, I have no commercial relationship with Lulu other than that of being a customer. I will never receive a penny from any book of mine you buy from Lulu or any of its competitors. I have put, and will continue to put, all my books for the Lord into the public domain.
• The book ordering experience at Lulu was not easy. There’s lots and lots of choices you have to make – hardback or paperback, this size book or that, this quality paper or that, this color of paper or that, and on and on it goes. There is such a thing as too many choices. Another problem is that the user interface seemed clunky to me, and the workflow from one part of the ordering process to another was confusing. Worst of all, I found no online support – no AI chatbot, no human CSR. (Just keepin’ it real, people.)

Bottom line: The publishing industry has figured out a way to make producing a single book from a pdf more economical than buying a traditionally mass-produced book. I never imagined such a thing could be. The implications for the gospel are heartwarming and exciting.

Audio Versions

Although you’ll see some of my books listed as having an audio version, I no longer produce them for the newer books I am writing. Technology can now produce audio versions much more easily.

I recently learned about an app called Speechify. It converts written text into spoken words. It’s been around since 2017, and it’s growing in usage because many people want to consume books and other written material by listening rather than by reading. This can be because people have visual impairments, reading difficulties, and such, but it can also be because some folks just want to be able to consume written material in the same way they consume podcasts – that is, while they’re doing something else. I’m sure Speechify has competitors – enough that I don’t have to keep producing audio versions myself.