Calvins - "Sermons on Job." - Please Pray for Me

[davejonescue]

Hello all. Just asking if you have a moment to pray for me as I am seeking to embark on a "side-project." By side project, I mean a brother reached out to me asking if I knew where you could get Calvins "Sermons on Job" for no-cost ePub; and I could not find any place. The cheapest I found for ePub was $60 for Banner's edition. Since Logan made Calvins "Sermons on Job" available with the Project Puritas 2.0 update, much of the EEBO-TCP version has been initially cleaned. But, because it was written in the 1500's as opposed to the 1600's, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

I call it a side project, because I have decided to take the 1,200 pages of text, and divide them up into 244, 5 page segments, and try to do a segment a day. So this would put completion at around Dec. 2024. This would also give me plenty of time to do other Puritan works, which is my main focus. I am just thinking, that RHB calls this set Calvins "most popular sermon series" yet it is a shame that the cost puts it out of reach for many people, especially those in developing countries.

I am mainly asking for prayer for endurance, to not slack and let putting it off one day turn into 10. With the initial find & replace, I was able to make about 10,000 corrections, things like changing "too" to "to," "&" to "and," highlighting all the non-spelling errors (which were about 1.5 per page) and highlighting areas that need to be highlighted like a,e,o,u,'s with a line above them (for n or m after), "?" to capitalize after, etc. With Kutools it is pretty easy to split and merge again. So it is basically doing the 5 pages a day and seeing it through. I am sure U of M's Middle English Compendium will be a big help as well.

All in all just kind of want others who dont, to have the same chance as us in the West to access these works we so easily do. And if it is in the Public Domain, no reason I shouldnt take a go at it. If the Lord allows, so be it. All of your prayers will be appreciated, and if it does happen, I will share the link for the ePub download when completed.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

That is certainly doable; maybe 2 or 3 hours work of reading and correcting.

 

[davejonescue]

That is certainly doable; maybe 2 or 3 hours work of reading and correcting.

I think so. I try to get up at 7 or 8am and dont have to go to work until 2pm. So that leaves me about 5-6 hours a day. Get off work, relax, read the Bible, spend some time in prayer, call it a day.

 

[shunoshimobe]

Thank you brother, I was actually about to order the ebup set but for some reason Banner has it OOS and only on a waitlist (which is weird, because, its just computer files right?). Also read the 3vol edition was missing his ending prayers.

Will defintly add to prayer list.

 

[greenbaggins]

I am curious why you would call a three-volume set sold at $79 (at wtsbooks.com) "out of reach." That's $26.34 per volume for a very nicely bound (in signatures) set. I would hardly call that "out of reach" in today's market. Compared to well over $100 per volume (often glued bindings) for publishers like Brill, Mohr-Siebeck, V&R, T&T Clark (and many books they sell are paperback and glued and STILL over $100 per volume), BoT selling this set for that price is actually more than reasonable.

 

[Logan]

That's certainly achievable but it's a lot of work just because someone was curious if they could get it for free.

For reference:
I carefully went through the work of transcribing a number of Calvin's sermons and publishing them on Kindle at affordable prices. I have had:

- Calvin's sermons on Titus for ten years at $2.99 and have sold 202 copies globally (9 from non-US/UK countries)
- Calvin's sermons on Psalm 46 for $0.99 for 6 years and have sold 88 copies globally (4 from non-US/UK countries)
- Calvin's sermons on the Song of Hezekiah at $0.99 for 4 years and have sold 40 copies globally (0 from non-US/UK countries)

For those non-US/UK countries, how many are from "poor" countries? Well, I have 4 from Brazil and 2 from Mexico. None from Asian countries. Now, I'm glad I did them but realistically the audience is likely going to be tiny and you're not reaching the poor countries---it's likely wealthy countries where people love to collect books but hardly anyone actually reads them.

If someone really wants the Job sermons and can't afford them, the PDFs are available. So is EEBO's transcription. So is the raw-formatted epub I already produced automatically on Project Puritas (together with html, Word, and PDF formats). But if someone is saying that's not good enough and they want a professionally edited and proofed epub for free...well that's like a beggar saying I don't want the bread you're offering because it's Walmart bread and I want the French artisan bread. It's already available and very accessible for free!

In hard copy I have the facsimile as well as the three-volume set and there are also some older editions of selected sermons from the 50s that can be gotten cheaply. Then Banner did the epubs of the first two volumes. So availability for this is high and I don't think it's really worth a lot of effort on my part to help someone save a few bucks on their part. My two cents.

 

[davejonescue]

I am curious why you would call a three-volume set sold at $79 (at wtsbooks.com) "out of reach." That's $26.34 per volume for a very nicely bound (in signatures) set. I would hardly call that "out of reach" in today's market. Compared to well over $100 per volume (often glued bindings) for publishers like Brill, Mohr-Siebeck, V&R, T&T Clark (and many books they sell are paperback and glued and STILL over $100 per volume), BoT selling this set for that price is actually more than reasonable.

My statement about it "being out of reach" has nothing to do with it being a fair price. I have no qualms with what Banner has charged for it. Nor did I say it was unreasonable. The context of that statement is for those who do not live in the US, which constitutes a large quantity of the audience at Monergism. With what we earn in 2 hours, and for some of us 1, could be what someone in another country earns in a week or more. Some of these places, Asia, Latin America, Africa, India, etc. have been projected to be larger Christian populations than North America is currently, within the next 40 years, not all, but some like Africa and Asia I think. Converting this and other books to ePub ensures that if a person only has a phone, they can read it with adjustable text size; and if it is free, there is no financial barrier.

 

[davejonescue]

That's certainly achievable but it's a lot of work just because someone was curious if they could get it for free.

For reference:
I carefully went through the work of transcribing a number of Calvin's sermons and publishing them on Kindle at affordable prices. I have had:

- Calvin's sermons on Titus for ten years at $2.99 and have sold 202 copies globally (9 from non-US/UK countries)
- Calvin's sermons on Psalm 46 for $0.99 for 6 years and have sold 88 copies globally (4 from non-US/UK countries)
- Calvin's sermons on the Song of Hezekiah at $0.99 for 4 years and have sold 40 copies globally (0 from non-US/UK countries)

For those non-US/UK countries, how many are from "poor" countries? Well, I have 4 from Brazil and 2 from Mexico. None from Asian countries. Now, I'm glad I did them but realistically the audience is likely going to be tiny and you're not reaching the poor countries---it's likely wealthy countries where people love to collect books but hardly anyone actually reads them.

If someone really wants the Job sermons and can't afford them, the PDFs are available. So is EEBO's transcription. So is the raw-formatted epub I already produced automatically on Project Puritas (together with html, Word, and PDF formats). But if someone is saying that's not good enough and they want a professionally edited and proofed epub for free...well that's like a beggar saying I don't want the bread you're offering because it's Walmart bread and I want the French artisan bread. It's already available and very accessible for free!

In hard copy I have the facsimile as well as the three-volume set and there are also some older editions of selected sermons from the 50s that can be gotten cheaply. Then Banner did the epubs of the first two volumes. So availability for this is high and I don't think it's really worth a lot of effort on my part to help someone save a few bucks on their part. My two cents.

I see where you are coming from, but the effort you already put in is plenty. I wasnt really asking you to help on this one. But its like what is posted on the Puritas website, the cleaned texts are also for those seeking to publish the works. Thats all I am doing, cept I am seeking to ePublish it, and for free. Every book I do, by Gods grace, I get better at doing it; but I also resonate with Monergisms motto of "offering the best in Reformed & Puritan literature at no cost to the world." Monergism has let me know the books from its site reach 1,000's on a regular basis; but it doesnt sell eBooks; which is good because I dont charge.

For me, it isnt really a matter of going out of my way for a single request; but being made aware of a work that is doable, is in the public domain, is expensive for a lot of people who may not be as financially blessed as the average Westerner, and is a popular work from a popular author. While people on Kindle may not appreciate it much, the people on Monergism seem to; and the hope is to get these works into places, with no restrictions, so they can bless people we will never know.

Also, many of these people in poorer countries are limited to smart phones, so getting into ePub is kind of a must. I dont really do anything else in my little neck of the woods, and if anything, this looks like a good challenge to see if the Lord will allow me to have patience, persistence, and endurance. Thank you so much for what you have already done. But its like what you said, Project Puritas is a huge completion in itself, but, its hopefully also a stepping stone to people being interested to improve upon it. Yes, what is offered is much better than what it was, and 1,000's of its works have fewer than 0.25% non-spelling errors; but this is a win/win. That is, many of these works are already almost perfectly readable, at the same time, the same amount take little work to become perfect.

I'm beggar myself, but I dont mind baking a baguette when the alternative is binge watching Max. Watch what the Lord can do with a few little loaves. Plus, I already tested the first 5 pages. Took about an hour and a quarter. Not much effort when you break it up into almost a year. The hard part isnt doing it, its doing a little everyday.

 

[Logan]

I see where you are coming from, but the effort you already put in is plenty. I wasnt really asking you to help on this one. But its like what is posted on the Puritas website, the cleaned texts are also for those seeking to publish the works. Thats all I am doing, cept I am seeking to ePublish it, and for free.

Oh I know you were asking me to do more and you're certainly welcome to spend your time on it, I just wanted you to be aware of the reality of the situation.

If someone doesn't value a book enough to pay $0.99, they will not value a free one even if they download it.

Downloads do not equal being read. I myself downloaded hundreds of Monergism's e-books back in the day before discovering many of them were badly formatted or missing large portions of text and so I ended up reading almost none.

Kindle books are vastly read more on smartphones (via the free Kindle app) than Amazon devices, that's not a barrier for poorer countries.

If you count Brazil and Mexico as "poorer" countries, then only 6 copies of my sermons on Calvin have reached poorer countries.

As I stated, if someone wants it for free and truly can't pay for it, they can even download the free epub I put out there, which for reference, looks like this:


That's really not bad. So it's not really, truly a choice where someone has to pay for it or not have it. It's more of a situation where someone wants a better free version than the free version or paid versions that are available.

Is it a worthwhile endeavor? Sure! But don't think that unless it is done, thousands in poor countries who want to read it and would have read it won't be able to. That's not realistic. That's what I'm saying.

 

[davejonescue]

Oh I know you were asking me to do more and you're certainly welcome to spend your time on it, I just wanted you to be aware of the reality of the situation.

If someone doesn't value a book enough to pay $0.99, they will not value a free one even if they download it.

Downloads do not equal being read. I myself downloaded hundreds of Monergism's e-books back in the day before discovering many of them were badly formatted or missing large portions of text and so I ended up reading almost none.

Kindle books are vastly read more on smartphones (via the free Kindle app) than Amazon devices, that's not a barrier for poorer countries.

If you count Brazil and Mexico as "poorer" countries, then only 6 copies of my sermons on Calvin have reached poorer countries.

As I stated, if someone wants it for free and truly can't pay for it, they can even download the free epub I put out there, which for reference, looks like this:
View attachment 10808

That's really not bad. So it's not really, truly a choice where someone has to pay for it or not have it. It's more of a situation where someone wants a better free version than the free version or paid versions that are available.

Is it a worthwhile endeavor? Sure! But don't think that unless it is done, thousands in poor countries who want to read it and would have read it won't be able to. That's not realistic. That's what I'm saying.

Thats crazy, I have never had that experience with Monergism. All of the books I have opened and read (though most partially,) have been perfectly fine to read, though sometimes the H&G have been omitted, which is fine for me because I cant read either fluently. But regardless; for this season I have, Lord Willing, dedicated myself to creating, or formatting books for them, so like in the case of this book, as you have shown, wont take much effort to improve on.

The thing with this particular book though, is its digital counterpart, apart from what is offered at Puritas, is $20 a volume, which is kind of expensive for an eBook in my opinion. And since it is already so close to being "perfected" if you will, it is no biggie to spend a few hours and get it prepped for Monergism. I kind of do this eBook thing not only for the possible benefits to the global Christian community, but also as a way to combat idleness. If it is for nothing, then it is for nothing; but for some reason, I just dont think that will be the case. Some people tinker, some people fish, some people work on cars for leisure. I do eBooks. So this looks like a good challenge.

I know you are just looking out for me, which I appreciate because your wisdom has stopped me from "going out there" before; but I dont think in this case I am expending myself too much. I am really, to be honest, more interested to see if I can do something for 240 days; which has the duel benefit of offering this work further formatted for free, and the Lord showing me that through steady persistence otherwise burdensome tasks can be completed.

 

[davejonescue]

So I hope this a step in the right direction. I found out in Word, even if my text is "split" when I "merge" them with Kutools, if I use superscripts and end-notes, they all update once merged. Since it is a text by Calvin, which will probably be more critically looked at, it seems better since the ability is there to indicate all the words that have been updated by superscript, then list the original in the end-notes. This helps for at least two reasons. 1. It makes it extremely easy for those who may be more linguistically gifted to point out an error in the word I have updated, thus leading to a much easier correction; and 2. For those who are super serious about Calvin, to see exactly what words have been updated. For spelling correction, I wont do this, but for word changes I will. Even if it is just a long list of words at the end of the book; I want people to be able to not only correct me, which will help me in the future; but to look up anything they may question. The OED tip I saw in a former post about someone previously attempting to do this work has been extremely helpful. Without it, I would be out of luck on what is appearing to be quite a few words.


****Edit. I just found out you can do End-notes at the end of each Sermon using "end of section" instead of "end of document." This will be a lot better, and will make the lists of updated words much more comprehensible. Will just restart and break them up into sections, by Sermons, by Headings in Kutools. No biggie.