So I’ve had this nagging feeling every time I read a Christian book (other than the Bible), something that the author intended to inspire, impart knowledge, hold accountability and so forth, of why would the author want me to pay to hear this? I don’t understand why a Christian author, intentionally writing a book meant for a Christian audience, licenses his/her work in such a way that the book will only reach people who spend an amount set by the publisher and/or author, instead of a broader audience.

Now, let me set something straight. I haven’t written a book, I don’t know the entire negotiation process that goes on between the publisher and author. What kind of deals are brokered? I don’t know. Is there a secret ritual or rite of passage that occurs before given the go-ahead to write a book? I don’t know.

So where does that leave me? Empty speculation and argumentation about something I don’t fully understand the entire workings of. Welcome to the internet.

Let’s pretend you’re an author.

You have an awesome idea, inspiration touched you and you feel compelled to share that inspiration with the world. So, what better way than a book right? I mean, people still read nowadays right?

So you write, you write during your free time about something you’re passionate about, and (assuming you’re writing a Christian book, which is what this post is about) you want to share it with as many Christians as possible. So you sign on with a publisher to distribute, print and market the book. Let’s say your book ends up costing $14.95, which seems in line with where book prices for this sort of book are.

Now comes the hard decision. Will you as the author sacrifice your original intent to spread the word of your book to as many people as possible by having a barrier to (readership) entry of $14.95?

Because that’s what I feel like Christian authors are doing. Maybe they aren’t aware there is an alternative?

Take, for example, Shane Claiborne‘s book: The Irresistible Revolution. This is a book that, while it has its faults, I think would be beneficial for all Christians to read, so why the cost of $10.19 (on Amazon) for something that should be a work of service to the Christian community? Shane has a very anti-consumerist message in a lot of his books, so why even charge for the book at all? (I understand charging for a hard copy of the book because of printing fees, etc, but why not just post it free online as a PDF?) I know that Shane is not a professional, full-time author, so the money is not going to support him. Is the money going to charity? Great! There is still a win-win situation for both parties: licensing the book under Creative Commons.

There a few different licenses to choose from. Shane could go with Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives for the license, which would mean he would be attributed as author of the work, someone else could not sell it and no derivatives could be made of it. However, it could be freely distributed and copied, which is exactly the point of writing a Christian book to me.

This doesn’t preclude making money (if so desired, for charity or supporting the author) from the book. Creative Commons allows for dual-licensing a work, so Shane could enter into a revenue generating license (i.e., with Zondervan, the current publisher of Irresistible Revolution), while preserving the disseminating power of a CC license. This of course assumes Zondervan would be up for that idea, I hope they would.

It’s not like it hasn’t been done. Look at authors like Cory Doctorow, whose novels are both published by Tor and released with CC license on his website, to encourage sharing of his works. Take “Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town” for example, I purchased a copy at Barnes & Nobles (for ~$10 I think), but the entire book is also available to anyone who wants to download it from Doctorow’s site.

The point is, writing a book meant to be widespread can be assisted by licensing under Creative Commons. And, since one of the points of being a Christian author is to reach a large Christian audience with your message, I have to ask, why don’t more Christian authors release their books under CC licenses and then dual-license with another license? Did we focus on the wrong goal of writing a book for Christian audiences (by a Christian), that is, making money?

Shouldn’t we be focusing on the message and not the monetary gain?

NOTE: If you leave a comment, give me a day or so to reply to you, I normally think about the comment for a while before responding, I haven’t forgotten about your comment.