Danke Eerdmans
Many thanks to the kind folk at Eerdmans for a review copy of Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, which gladly arrived in the post today!
*Jumps up and down with glee and does a little break dance*
By the way, Bauckham’s book is evidently selling like wildfire and is the Eerdmans December featured book of the month, as can be seen here.
posted by Chris Tilling @ 4:03 PM
22 comments
22 Comments:
I have appreciated Bauckham's work before this and your series on this work has led me to want to add this to a must-buy list.
If your *REVIEW* copy only arrived today, how can it be Eerdman's December featured book of the month? Review copies are normally sent out well ahead of the publication date. December is already more than half over! (and no-one pays attention to such things over the Christmas/New Year holiday week).
Seems like Eerdmans has finally woken up to their abysmal smothering of this book but are offering far too little, far too late.
Next time, a scholar of Bauckham's stature should go with OUP or some other publisher who can actually get copies of his book into people's hands in a timely manner.
Wow, anonymous I appreciate your candor. I also don't think that I've ever seen the words "abysmal" and "smothering" together before.
A comment on review copies: They don't (at least in theological publishing) go out ahead of the publication date. Where would they come from? For us, the publication date on the website is the date that the books arrive here in Grand Rapids. Now, we do send out advance proofs of books months before the publication date. So we sent Chris (and many, many other periodicals/bloggers) the book just as soon as we could. (Chris, correct me if I'm wrong, but you had proofs from Richard himself that you used)
One more thing. If this book was with an Oxbridge or Ivy publisher the price would be significantly higher. You might be able to buy it, if you skipped eating for a month.
On your recommendation I bought this, some light christmas reading! Looks superb. Jason.
I'm with you, Justin. The price is good, the binding is superb, and, yes, I did have an (electronic) copy long before it was published. I'm no fan of reading from the computer screen, though!
Lovely to hear from you, Jason! Have a great Christmas, and lots of fun reading the book! Perhaps we will see you sometime in the new year ...
Justin at Eerdmans:
Can you tell us why this book has taken so very, very long to finally reach the bookstores then? It was already being talked about in the early summer and was first listed on the Eerdmans website as due for publication way back in September. Then it got delaying and the publication date got put back to November, now in late December people seem to be finally able to at long last get hold of a copy.
I like Eerdmans as a publisher and buy many Eerdmans books but there's no doubt that you've let Dr. Bauckham down badly with your dilly-dallying over his magnum opus.
"the binding is superb"
Is the binding real cloth (as it probably would be if published by OUP UK) or just paper covered boards?
Now that the book has finally appeared during the height of the Christmas rush, I'm just too busy to go and buy a copy. I have so much other Christmas shopping to do that a trip to the Christian bookstore, something that normally I have ample time for, seems impossible to squeeze in.
I'm sure I'm not the only one.
anonymous said,"I have so much other Christmas shopping to do that a trip to the Christian bookstore, something that normally I have ample time for, seems impossible to squeeze in."
This says far more about the way you're celebrating Christmas than anything else. Our church makes a deliberate attempt to Reclaim Christmas (trademark pending--just kidding) from the consumerist greed and materialism. We tell family members, especially extended family members, to spend nothing on us. We limit gifts to each other to very small amounts. The money saved is collected for development/missions work in the 2/3 World. This year we are paying the salary of a teacher to the poor town of Tarmilac, Morrocco. She will teach both children and adults in one of the places with the highest illiteracy rates in the country. Our work will pay her salary for at least a year. (Last year we helped the women of Tarmilac start small businesses of handcrafts.)
There are many variations--but if one's experience of Advent and Christmastide is of hustle and bustle and hectic schedules, then something is seriously wrong.
To Justin at Eerdmans:
It seems that I was wrong about people being able at long last to get hold of a copy of this book. I had to go to a certain part of the city this afternoon, and as the bookstore is only 15 minutes further down the road, I decided to try yet again to get Dr. Bauckham's new book.
No such luck! I asked the store manager and he told me that he has 53 copies on order (and he has had them on order for a very long time, I've asked there several times in past weeks/months), but they still haven't arrived.
He also told me that he normally gets a review copy from Eerdmans but that hasn't arrived yet either. But he didn't seem at all surprised. I asked him if this was usual. His reply: "Yes, Eerdmans are often late with their books."
So... let's see... a review copy manages to make it's way to a blogger in Tubigen but not to a bookstore manager in a major North American city who has already pre-ordered 53 copies...
So, here's one major North American city where Eerdmans -- and, alas, Dr. Bauckham -- have totally missed out on all pre-Christmas sales to date. The busiest selling time of the year, and Dr. Bauckham's magnum opus -- already being discussed in the early summer and first slated for publication back in September -- is a total no-show.
I think Eerdmans definitely owes Dr. Bauckham an apology and a promise to do better next time. If, that is, Dr. Bauckham decides to entrust you with a book of his ever again.
For the record, that's received in the Washington D.C. suburbs weeks ago.
Bought online, received weeks ago (yay, Eerdmans!). Can't open yet--Christmas present.
Hey guys, what's the problem?
It's published, it arrived promptly when ordered a couple of weeks ago (UK), the covers haven't fallen off and it's a brilliant read!
Have a blessed Christmas and don't read anything TOO heavy.
I get Eerdmans books all the time and I never have a problem. I think they're great.
Well, it seems that Justin at Eerdmans has disappeared, so I guess I'm not going to get any answers to any of my questions.
Actually Justin, I think it's much worse form to personalise this and not to respect another person's anonymity. And it's even worse form to sneakily use Eerdman's business records to broach anonymity, and most especially wrong of you to identify the store I cited without permission (which has nothing to do with our debate on this blog).
I see that you have no explanations of why the book has been delayed so long, only an ad hominem and an attempt to embarrass?
Boy, that really makes me want to go out and buy the book now. NOT!
Good Lord (to quote John the Baptist), mr or miss anonymous sure seems to be an anti-eerdman-ite. i wonder if he works for brill!?!?
I've never had a problem with eerdmans quality or the timeliness of their service. And I'm not so smarmy as to hide behind anonymity. Anyway, we know its you mr Carr.
Jim, a beautifully sensitive comment to add to this tender thread!
Chris, in his hurry to post I think Jim must have missed my earlier comment:
"I like Eerdmans as a publisher and buy many Eerdmans books."
That said, I'm still not quite prepared to jump in an aeroplane and fly to another city just to buy a particular Eerdmans title, as their representative Justin seems to suggest I do!
Love is *patient*.
I have been waiting for it to come out too. I recently ordered it from Amazon and I got it earlier than I thought. I'm happy with it.
Anonymous,
One last thing and I'll let you phish somewhere else.
We've shipped and sold nearly the entire print run of J & TE. (with a reprint on the way!)I'm sorry that you are having problems getting a copy in XXXX. There are other places in Canada that you can obtain one (other than a certain store on the XXX XXX).
Quite bad form, BTW, to attack from behind the cloak of anonymity.
I'm not sure it really matters, Anon, but I've done what you asked. Enjoy the book when it arrives!
Thanks, Chris.
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