In a nod to the revolutionary changes occurring in publishing, the new complete Common English Bible (@CommonEngBible & @VersesForToday) is now debuting in 20 digital platforms, almost 2 months before print editions will be available in stores. It’s currently online at http://CommonEnglishBible.com along with a search widget users can download to their blogs and websites (http://CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/LookupWidget).
The digital editions of the Common English Bible are Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Nook, Sony, Olivetree, Logos, BibleWorks, Accordance Software, ChristianBook, Kobo, OverDrive, Blio, Copia, Lightning Source, and YouVersion. The introductory suggested retail price of all electronic versions is $5.95 and will increase to the regular suggested retail price of $9.95 September 1. The new translation is also searchable through Bible Gateway (http://BibleGateway.com), and Bible Study Tools (http://BibleStudyTools.com).
This is the first time the Common English Bible is available in its complete form including the Old Testament, and available with the Apocrypha. The New Testament was released August 2010.
“The Common English Bible is a brand-new, bold translation designed to meet the needs of people in all stages of their spiritual journey and study,” says Paul Franklyn, associate publisher for the Common English Bible. “We’re excited to make this translation available as soon as possible through the Internet and other digital resources.”
The Common English Bible is unlike any other translation. It’s uncommon in that it’s the newest translation by the largest number of biblical scholars & church leaders in words 21st century readers use every day, aligning academic rigor with modern understandability, proven through extensive field-testing with, and acting on feedback from, hundreds of readers. The new Common English Bible is the only translation to combine and balance highly respected ecumenical biblical scholarship necessary for serious study with responsiveness to 21st century clear communication requirements for comprehensive clarity. It was approved in May by Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, for official use in biblical studies courses.
“The Common English Bible is the result of collaboration between opposites: men working with women; scholars working with average readers; conservatives working with liberals, many denominations and many ethnicities coming together around the common goal of creating a translation that unites rather than divides, with the ultimate goal of mutually accomplishing God’s overall work in the world,” says Franklyn.
Combining scholarly accuracy with vivid language, the Common English Bible is the work of 120 biblical scholars from 24 denominations in American, African, Asian, European, and Latino communities, representing such academic institutions as Asbury Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University, Bethel Seminary, Denver Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Seattle Pacific University, Wheaton College, Yale University, and many others. They translated the Bible into English directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.
Additionally, more than 500 readers in 77 groups field-tested the translation. Every verse was read aloud in the reading groups, where potentially confusing passages were identified. The translators considered the groups' responses and, where necessary, reworked those passages to clarify in English their meaning from the original languages. In total, more than 600 people worked jointly to bring the Common English Bible to fruition.
The digital revolution is accelerating changes in language and its everyday usage. The new Common English Bible is written in contemporary idiom at the same reading level as the newspaper USA TODAY—using language that’s comfortable and accessible for today’s English readers. This new translation strives to make Bible reading more clear and compelling for individuals, groups, and corporate worship services.
The Common English Bible is an inclusive translation, using male and female pronouns where appropriate to indicate the meaning of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek text when referring to general human beings. Pronouns for God, Lord, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit are translated as he, his, or him.
Another unique feature of the Common English Bible is the inclusion of exclusive, detailed color maps from National Geographic, well known for its vibrant and accurate map making. The Common English Bible is also the only translation to extensively use contractions where the text warrants an engaging conversational style (not used in divine or poetic discourse).
Visit CommonEnglishBible.com to see comparison translations, learn about the translators, get free downloads, and more. Also see its Facebook page, tell others about it, and “Like” it.
The Common English Bible is a denomination-neutral Bible sponsored by the Common English Bible Committee, an alliance of five publishers that serve the general market, as well as the Disciples of Christ (Chalice Press), Presbyterian Church (Westminster John Knox Press), Episcopal Church (Church Publishing Inc.), United Church of Christ (Pilgrim Press), and United Methodist Church (Abingdon Press).
To schedule an interview with Paul Franklyn, contact Diane Morrow, dmorrow@tbbmedia.com or 800.927.1517.
Edmund Whitehead (from Schweppes ads), Ogilvy, and George Wranell (from Hathaway ads)
This is the centennial of David Ogilvy’s birth (read his brief bio). A spy during WWII, he channeled his acute social sensitivities into marketing and public relations following the war, becoming the most familiar brand name in advertising (Ogilvy, @OGILVY & @OgilvyWW). His ads continue to be iconic (the bearded gentleman for Schweppes, the eye-patch for Hathaway shirts, etc.). Read about (and see) a few of his successes on Adweek’s (@Adweek) “Past Perfect: Considering the highlights of David Ogilvy’s revolutionary work in context.”
Ogilvy quips to remember (from the above video):
- Be more ambitious; don’t bunt. Try to hit the ball out of the park every time. Compete with immortals.
- The consumer is not a moron. She is your wife. Don't insult her intelligence.
- Inject into every ad a touch of singularity; a burr that will hook on to the consumer’s mind.
- The more story appeal you have in a photo, the more people will look at your ad.
- Advertising shouldn’t be tricky or cute.
- Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.
- You can’t bore people into buying your product, you can only interest them into buying it.
- Use facts copiously, adjectives sparingly. Be specific.
- The more you tell, the more you sell.
- The advertising business is all about big ideas.
Mike Shatzkin (@MikeShatzkin) says, “It never took me much time to find what I wanted to read next until I started reading ebooks.”
Just about every new book I’d want to read is available for my device of choice (the iPhone) and the digitization of the backlist just carries on going deeper and deeper into publishers’ repositories.
But the merchandising, at least for somebody who shops on the iPhone (it’s a bit better through the ereading devices or PCs), leaves a lot to be desired. My shopping experiences are actually a bit of a random walk. I ask my ebook retailer to show me books by category and, since my categories don’t change much (and haven’t since I was a kid) I tend to see the same books over and over again, far too many of which I have already read....
A short time ago I was shopping for my next read on the iPhone. I started out shopping with Kindle (@AmazonKindle) and then Nook (@nookBN) and a few minutes on each of their mobile sites didn’t turn up anything that moved me. Then at Google Ebooks (@googlebooks) I found Making of the President 1968 by Theodore White. That was definitely one I wanted to read. I bought it and I’m in the middle of it.
There is no particular guarantee that I’ll find my next book on Google. I haven’t found any clear pattern yet among the four stores I shop regularly (Kobo (@kobo) being the fourth). Obviously, if I know I want to read another James Patterson or John Locke thriller, any of them would deliver it to me quickly and painlessly in response to a search. It is when I am hunting by subject that the search returns seem to be pot luck. I’m probably not making it any easier on the retailers by spreading my shopping around; if any of them actually did have a good engine to take my purchasing and reading profile and make the next great recommendation, I’d be screwing it up by spreading around my data.
All of this underscores how difficult is the challenge being faced by Bookish in the US and aNobii (@aNobii) in the UK, two “find what to read next” sites financed by major publishers. And they join a long line of sites that have tried to build recommendations and community conversation around what people are reading: Goodreads (@goodreads), Shelfari (@shelfari), LibraryThing, (@LibraryThing), and the new ebook platform, Copia (@TheCopia).
Other book sharing websites Mike doesn’t mention, but you may want to check out, are BookRabbit (@thebookrabbit) and ShelfLuv (@shelfluv).
What are some ways publishers and etailers should help consumers effectively find ebooks?
NewScientist (@newscientist) reports a robot has the flexibility and accuracy to play pool, completing 400 shots with an 80% success rate.
The robot, designed by Thomas Nierhoff, Omiros Kourakos, and Sandra Hirche at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, has two arms that can move in 7 different ways. Cameras mounted above the table track the position of the balls and cue, and feed this information to the robot's computers. It can then decide on the best move and calculate how the arms should be oriented to complete the stroke. To get into position, it rolls around the table using predetermined coordinates.
Join Somersault (@smrsault) in keeping an eye on how today’s technology will influence our future by reading the Somersault Futurist Daily News and using the SomersaultNOW dashboard of more than 300 articles and RSS feeds designed for publishers and marketers; especially note the Future tab. And tell your colleagues. Thanks!
Adweek (@Adweek) says, “Call them the FB generation.” They consider technology a sixth sense.
McCann Worldgroup’s (@mccann_wg) newly completed global survey “The Truth About Youth,” which polled 16-to-30-year-olds, concludes that millennials live in a new “social economy” in which the power of sharing and recommending brands cannot be overstated. (Past generations defined themselves by material possessions or experiences.)
This group, according to the study, lives outloud, emphasizing public self-definition, life narration, and broadcasting via blogging platforms, digital cameras, and cheap editing and design software.
In the words of one study respondent: “If there are no pics, it didn’t happen.”
The agency’s takeaway: Brands should follow the top 5 traits young people say they look for in their social friends. Advertising should be truthful, genuine, sociable, mature, and humble to connect.
The biggest mistake marketers make? Overestimating their own importance. Young consumers say they quickly tire of brands that clutter up digital feeds with what they see as useless information.
Also see ClickZ’s (@ClickZ) coverage by Anna Maria Virzi (@AnnaMariaVirzi), “Study: Millennials Value ‘Social Economy.’”
Another study of millennials, this one by Public Religion Research Institute (@publicreligion) and reported by RNS (@ReligionNewsNow), says a significant majority of that age group believe it’s permissible to disagree with their church teachings on abortion and homosexuality and still remain in good standing with their faith. They’re “committed to availability, conflicted about morality.”
Let Somersault help you research your market.
In an article on Digital Book World (@DigiBookWorld), Fauzia Burke (@FauziaBurke) writes,
When authors come to me and say, “I want to reach book bloggers or mommy bloggers,” I often have to tell them that bloggers have very specific tastes. More specific than you probably realize. For example, when reaching out to mommy bloggers, it is really important to know the age of their kids. Pitching a YA novel to a mommy blogger with a baby won’t get you far. Pitching a Sci-Fi novel to a blogger that loves historical romance won’t work either. Sending a WWII book to a blogger that covers the Civil War will make for a cranky blogger, and sending a press release to the wrong person may actually get you black listed.
She lists 8 tips in reaching bloggers:
- Know Their Beat
- Search for Blogs
- Value of Bloggers
- Make Things Easier
- Approach Bloggers One at a Time
- Don’t Push
- Represent Good Content
- Perfect Your Publicity Database
Warc (@WarcEditors) reports on a new study by Google and Ipsos OTX MediaCT that says smartphone use is increasingly influencing US consumers’ media use and shopping habits.
- 93% of smartphone owners use the devices at home.
- 87% use it “on the go” (77% in stores, 73% in restaurants, 72% at work).
- 59% log on to the mobile Web while waiting in line, 48% do so as they eat, 44% during shopping trips, and 43% while travelling.
- 81% say they’ve browsed the mobile Internet in the last week, 77% used search engines, 68% used apps, and 48% played back video.
- 72% engage in simultaneous media use involving smartphones and other mainstream channels at some point. This includes 33% watching TV at the same time as using the wireless Web, 29% also going online through a PC, 27% for gaming, and 22% for reading print media.
- 82% employ email services on their phone and 63% visit social networks.
- 82% research and read news, 75% exploit navigation tools, 65% enjoy entertainment content, and 45% manage their finances, social life, or travel arrangements.
- 46% of participants use ecommerce sites, 43% view video-sharing portals, 38% visit general consumer websites, and 26% go to official brand platforms.
- 79% use their handsets for commercial purposes. Some 78% locate retailers, compare prices, or search store inventories, and 69% seek out product information, such as by scanning a barcode, watching online video, or reading reviews.
- 52% contact a retailer, 40% source coupons, and 28% redeem virtual discount vouchers.
- Within the 74% of individuals claiming to have previously made purchases because of using a smartphone, 76% bought goods at a brick-and-mortar outlet and 59% did so from a PC. 35% snapped up a product straight from their phone, 27% looked to mobile websites, and 22% turned to apps for the same reason.
- Where people bought goods through a smartphone, the average annual expenditure hit $300, with 48% of relevant consumers buying entertainment items, as electronics and apparel both secured 45%.
- Conducting research on a smartphone and then buying in-store remains the most common path to purchase, with 67%, but 9% of respondents had taken the opposite route.
- Elsewhere, 23% undertook investigations on a wireless device and then a brick-and-mortar store before completing transactions on the Web.
- A further 16% researched and purchased on a phone, with a trip to a store sandwiched in the middle.
- Having been asked to describe mobile advertising formats they could recall, 45% of those polled referenced banners and graphical ads, and 43% mentioned executions on a website they had viewed.
- A 35% share remembered ads embedded in apps, standing at 34% for paid-search listings, 28% for SMS, and 21% for video and location-based alternatives.
See the research report, “The Mobile Movement,” in full (pdf).
Let Somersault help you strategize your mobile publishing future.
The editorial director for the international publishing strategy and services agency Somersault Group (http://somersaultgroup.com) (@smrsault), Dave Lambert, is a finalist for Fiction Editor of the Year, a category in the 2011 Golden Scroll Awards sponsored by the Advanced Writers & Speakers Association (AWSA).
Responsible for managing the editorial development process for each manuscript at Somersault, Lambert is also the owner of Lambert Editorial. He’s the author of 10 books (including The Missionary); a requested speaker; former senior fiction editor at Howard Publishing, a division of Simon & Schuster; and former executive editor for fiction at Zondervan, a HarperCollins company. Lambert was a previous finalist in this category in 2009 and the winner in 2002.
Honored for outstanding ministry partnerships with their authors, nominees for this award are selected by authors, and the voting is done by authors. “Dave has a reputation of pushing authors beyond their comfort zone to help them hone their writing craft and achieve their best book possible,” says John Topliff, Somersault general manager. “This recognition reflects Somersault’s commitment to the highest editorial standards.”
Other finalists for Fiction Editor of the Year are Vicki Crumpton of Baker Publishing Group and Jan Stob of Tyndale House Publishers. Along with Fiction Editor of the Year, the 2011 Golden Scroll Award categories are Publisher of the Year, Editor of the Year, Novel of the Year, and Nonfiction Book of the Year. The winners will be announced at the AWSA awards banquet, July 10, at the Omni at CNN Center in Atlanta during the International Christian Retail Show annual convention.
On Wired’s (@wired) epicenter (@epicenterblog), John C. Abell (@johncabell), Wired.com's New York editor, gives his reasons why ebooks are fundamentally flawed:
1) An unfinished ebook isn’t a constant reminder to finish reading it.
2) You can’t keep your books all in one place.
3) Notes in the margins help you think.
4) Ebooks are positioned as disposable, but aren’t priced that way.
5) Ebooks can’t be used for interior design.
About the last point, Abell says
It may be all about vanity, but books — how we arrange them, the ones we display in our public rooms, the ones we don’t keep — say a lot about what we want the world to think about us. Probably more than any other object in our homes, books are our coats of arms, our ice breakers, our calling cards. Locked in the dungeon of your digital reader, nobody can hear them speak on your behalf.
Do you agree with this assessment? Write your comments below.