Every month or so, I receive an e-mail telling me that I ought to print my books in bound format, and that free digital books are just not good enough.
At times, this amuses me. Other times, it enrages me. But it always discourages me.
Occasionally, the letter refers to my free books on GaryNorth.com.
Usually, it refers to my free site, www.GaryNorth.com/freebooks.
The letter says something like this:
While I appreciate the fact that you publish all of your books on-line for free, I like to read books in printed format. Why don't you make these books available in printed form?
There are a lot of reasons. Here are the ones that persuaded me to stop printing books after 1996.
1. For a book like Tools of Dominion, it cost about $10,000 in typesetting fees and $25,000 up front to print it. Then it cost for the storage space. When I finally liquidated the books stored by the Institute for Christian Economics, the total number was over 100,000 volumes, which were stored in a very large barn. I had to give them away. No one wanted them. This was after months of fire-sale prices.2. You can't do Print on Demand (one book at a time) for a 1,300-page hardback book.
3. I can update, revise, or correct a digital book in PDF in less than three minutes.
4. Readers can forward a PDF book for free.
5. Readers can decide whether it's worth paying for toner and paper and a 3-hole binder. It's their call. I don't have to decide for them.
6. A book printed out has wide margins for making comments.
7. A digital book can be filed in the reader's data base program (EverNote is free). Searching for a phrase lets him retrieve the specific page.
8. You can make a preliminary translation using Babelfish if you have the document in ASCII text. You can convert a PDF book into ASCII text.
If I am amused by the letter, I refer the person to my article on Picard's Syndrome, a psychological affliction that keeps people from being able to read books printed on 8.5" x 11" pieces of paper. The reading material must be bound. It is posted here:
If I am angry, I write my version of their letter.
Dear Sir:I am one of your followers. While I never actually donated any money to the ICE, and while I have no understanding of what it costs to print 5,000 copies of a book, I must tell you that I am not satisfied with your work. Dissatisfied would be closer to it.
I prefer to read bound printed books. You no longer publish bound printed books. I demand an explanation.
Don't dismiss this request with any clever remarks, such as: "If ideas are important enough to you, it doesn't matter if they do not appear in a bound, printed book." It does matter. It matters a great deal. It is crucial.
You see, I'm an old school person. I equate truth with bound printed books. That's what publishers taught people from Gutenberg until that upstart Tim Berners-Lee developed the system of Web addresses. I don't want to hear any backtalk on this, such as: "The control over book printing and distribution gave the Left almost total control over book publishing from 1940 until about the year 2000." I don't want to hear it, even if it's true, which it obviously is. Don't write me off by pointing out the obvious. It will take more than this to satisfy me.
Yes, this is the twenty-first century, but I'm a twentieth-century person. I expect to be catered to.
My response:
To buy my printed books, call the phone number on the Freebooks site. I'll give it to you here: 847-259-4444, x-6. If a book is out of print, print out the digital version, which is free.Ideas have consequences in digital form. They no longer need to be baptized by their presentation in bound printed books.
If this does not satisfy the inquirer, then I don't need this particular disciple. The world will not be transformed by twentieth-century people using twentieth-century technology exclusively.
If an e-mail doesn't need to be printed out to convey ideas, neither does a book.
I worked for ICE free of charge from 1976 to 2001, when its assets were turned over to another ministry. I raised the money to typeset, print, store, and advertise dozens of book titles. Free labor was good enough for me back then. Free books are good enough for me now.
You can pay for toner and paper. If that's too much to ask, you must seek truth elsewhere.
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