If you’ve been keeping tabs on the Pre-Pub page over the last couple of weeks, you’ve probably noticed the scores of titles published by Baker. We just announced 9 new collections containing a total of 67 books from Baker covering topics like hermeneutics, Old Testament studies, New Testament studies, theology, preaching, counseling, and more.

Here’s the complete list of collections:

• Robert Webber Ancient-Future Collection (4 Vols.)
• Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics (4 Vols.)
• Baker New Testament Studies Collection (14 Vols.)
• Baker Encountering the Bible Collection (3 Vols.)
• Baker Preaching Collection (8 Vols.)
• Baker Theology Collection (11 Vols.)
• Baker Old Testament Studies Collection (6 Vols.)
• Baker Hermeneutics Collection (14 Vols.)
• Baker Counseling Collection (3 Vols.)

I’m really excited about many of the titles included in these collections. Several that make the top of my list:

• Muller’s Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics
• Schreiner’s New Testament Theology
• Carson and Beale’s Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
• Vanhoozer’s Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible
• Elwell’s Evangelical Dictionary of Theology
• Piper’s The Justification of God and The Supremacy of God in Preaching
• Chapell’s Christ-Centered Preaching
• Silva’s Interpreting Galatians

Which collections or individual books are you looking forward to most?

By the way, this is still only part of what I had in mind in my post about lots of great books coming down the pike. Still more to come.

The Cornerstone Biblical Commentary Series

Last Friday the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary (9 Vols.) hit the Pre-Pub page. This relatively new series from Tyndale, under the editorship of Philip W. Comfort, Tremper Longman III (OT), and Grant Osborne (NT), attempts–like the second edition of the New Living Translation it is based on–to be both exegetically accurate and idiomatically powerful.

The CBC gives careful attention to both the words and theological message of the texts of Scripture and strives to be a helpful tool for teachers, pastors, students, and lay people alike.

The contributors to this series—Allen P. Ross, Tremper Longman III, Darrell L. Bock, Harold W. Hoehner, and many others—represent a wide spectrum of theological positions within evangelicalism, reflecting the rich variety that exists in the church.

The 9-volume collection now on Pre-Pub includes the following titles:

• Genesis, Exodus
• Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs
• Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations
• Minor Prophets: Hosea-Malachi
• Matthew, Mark
• Luke, Acts
• The Gospel of John, 1-3 John
• Romans, Galatians
• Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Philemon

Visit the product page to place your pre-order.

Get the Matthew, Mark Volume for Free!

We have arranged with Tyndale to give away the Matthew, Mark volume for free—no strings attached! For a limited time you can head over to product page and add this wonderful title to your Libronix digital library absolutely free of charge. Use coupon code CORNERSTONE during checkout.

We’re confident that after you’ve had a chance to try out a volume from this series many of you will want to place your pre-order for the whole collection.

Head over to the product page to download it, and help us spread the word about this free offer!

NOTE: If you are not currently a Libronix user, we welcome you to take advantage of this free offer as well. You will simply need to follow these steps:

1. Download the free Libronix engine (for Windows) and install it. Installation is a two step process. Make sure to complete both steps before proceeding.
2. Start Libronix and create a Libronix Customer ID when prompted.
3. Visit the Matthew, Mark product page and click the "Add to Cart" button.
4. Make sure that CORNERSTONE appears in the Coupon Code box. If it doesn’t, add it and click "Update Cart." Then click "Proceed" to go to the next step.
5. Log in to your Logos.com account or create one if this is your first time purchasing anything from Logos.com.
6. Enter your credit card information. Don’t worry; your information is secure, and you will not be charged as long as you use the coupon code. Then click "Proceed" to go to the next step.
7. Verify that your Billing Information is correct. Then click "Proceed" to go to the next step. (NOTE: IF YOU USED THE COUPON CODE, YOU MAY SAFELY IGNORE THE SHOPPING CART INFO IN THE TOP RIGHT-HAND CORNER.)
8. In the top right-hand corner enter your Libronix Customer ID (created in step 2), click "Confirm," and then click "Submit Order." (You can find your Libronix Customer ID in Libronix under the "Help" menu in "About Libronix DLS."
9. Click the "Unlock & Download" button and then click "Open" or "Run" if prompted by your browser. Libronix Update will start and will download the book and unlock it.
10. When Libronix Update finishes, you may start Libronix and use your new book.

It’s not working for me. What do I do?

1. Did you completely install Libronix first (both steps)?
2. Did you create a Libronix Customer ID?
3. Did you make sure to enter the coupon code CORNERSTONE?
4. Did you make sure to enter your Libronix Customer ID in the top right-hand corner during checkout?
5. Try working through the 10 steps again. If that doesn’t work, call our Customer Service team at 800-875-6467.

I’m using the Mac alpha. How can I get the free book?

1. Follow steps 1-8 above.
2. Download the book file from the product page or from our FTP server and put it in your resources folder (normally /Library/Application Support/Libronix DLS/Resources on the startup volume).
3. Open Libronix for the Mac and synchronize your licenses by going to Tools > Library Management > Synchronize Licenses.
4. Your new book should now be unlocked and usable. You may need to restart Libronix for the changes to take effect.

Update: This offer has expired.

The Anchor Yale Bible (formerly Anchor Bible)—even though incomplete—is to my knowledge the largest commentary series ever written. Weighing in at 83 volumes, approximately 160 pounds, 43,315 pages, and an estimated 25,000,000 words, this is one massive collection of biblical data!

As you can imagine, producing a Libronix edition of this mammoth set is no small undertaking. Being 30 volumes larger than the International Critical Commentary Series, which we did a few years ago, the Anchor Yale Bible is the largest project we’ve ever attempted to do in a single collection. (Migne’s 166-volume Patrologia Graeca is a much bigger project, but we are breaking it into several smaller chunks.)

These 83 volumes retail at $3,920.00, but we are offering them on Pre-Pub for only $1,499.95. That’s more than 60% off the list price!

To be sure, $1,500 is far from pocket change. But if you start saving now and set aside a couple hundred dollars every month for the next several months, you’ll probably have enough to purchase this set by the time it’s ready to ship.

To put this in perspective on a smaller level, the average retail cost per volume is $47.23. If you purchase this collection on Pre-Pub, you’ll be paying only $18.07 per volume.

The 83 volumes that are included in this collection cover the entire Protestant Bible except for Deuteronomy 12-34, Proverbs 10-31, and Ezekiel 38-48, Nahum, Mark 8-16, and Philippians. Several of these volumes will become available after they have been published in print. In addition, this set provides you with commentaries on Tobit, Judith, the additions to Daniel, Esther, and Jeremiah, Wisdom of Solomon, The Wisdom of Ben Sira, 1-2 Maccabees, and 1-2 Esdras. You’ll also get both the new and old volumes for Second Isaiah (Blenkinsopp and McKenzie) and 1 Corinthians (Fitzmyer and Orr and Walther).

For a lot more information, head over to the product page, where you can place your pre-order. When I say a lot, I mean a lot. It’s 53 pages in a Word document and nearly 23,000 words! For a project this massive, we thought it was only fitting to have the product page correspond to the collection. :)

Now you know why it’s been a little quiet on the Pre-Pub page recently. Well, at least you know part of the reason. There are still more good things to come.

2/27/09 UPDATE: New Volume! We have added the newly published Philippians commentary by John Reumann. Lock in your order now!

Everyone likes free. But it’s still often true that “you get what you pay for.” In this post I’d like to address the issue of free Personal Book Builder (PBB) public domain books vs. Logos editions of public domain books.

The question comes often and in a variety of forms, but the bottom-line issue is whether the added features and functionality of the public domain books that we produce are worth the cost when compared to the books created and freely shared by many of our users using the Personal Book Builder.

One user asks,

I am seeking an in depth answer to a question I’ve had trouble having answered to my satisfaction: What are the advantages of Logos public domain resources over PBB public domain resources?

PBB’s can be placed in one’s Logos library, hovering the cursor over a Bible version reveals the text, and, of course, PBB’s can be searched. So what can the Logos version do that the PBB version cannot do?

The Standard Edition of our Personal Book Builder tool allows users to create their own Libronix resources from their sermons, lectures, class notes, or books in the public domain (or any material for which they hold the copyright) and share them with other users who have the PBB Reading Key, which is included in all of our base packages. (A Private Use Edition is also available at a reduced price, but the books cannot be shared with other users.)

The PBB meets a real need for those who want to have their notes, lectures, and other materials searchable in Libronix, but is it the best solution for building your library of public domain titles? Some say yes. Others say no. I’m going to give you the facts and let you decide for yourself.

Advantages of PBB Public Domain Books

1. Cost: PBB books are free (however, see #1 below). Most of the Logos editions of public domain books are not free, though they are often priced less expensively than copyrighted material. The Community Pricing Program enables you to pick up public domain books at very low prices. But still, they aren’t free.
2. Control: This is not really an advantage of the books themselves, but I needed a #2. :) Since users can create their own resources with the PBB, there’s no need to wait until we decide to put a title on Community Pricing or Pre-Pub and no need to wait until it generates sufficient interest to send it into production. If you want it, you can do the work and make it. (But this assumes that you either (1) spend the money to purchase the Personal Book Builder or (2) have a friend willing to do your projects for you.)

Advantages of Logos Public Domain Books

1. Accessibility: PBB books require the PBB Reading Key, which is available only in our base packages or by purchasing the Standard Edition of our Personal Book Builder (PBB) tool. So while PBBs are free, you’re looking at a $115 prerequisite at minimum (i.e., Christian Home Library with 25% off discount) to be able to use them. The public domain books that Logos produces can be used by anyone without a special reading key and without having to own a base package (though we would certainly encourage you to purchase a base package to get the most out of your public domain purchases).
2. Appearance: PBB books do not follow your font choices. You’re stuck with whatever the builder decided to use when he created the files. For the most part, Logos books allow you to customize which fonts are used for Greek, Hebrew (and other Semitic languages), and English (with a special script code). PBB books also don’t zoom as nicely as Logos books (the scroll bar increases in size along with the font).
3. Accuracy: PBB books are usually not as carefully proofed as our editions are. Since the individuals who build the PBBs are not being paid for their time, they usually don’t proof their work as carefully for accuracy. Logos books are OCRed and checked carefully to guarantee a very high degree of accuracy. Many are also updated to fix typos and other issues.
4. Extensiveness: Many PBB books and collections are not complete; they are often based on partial texts that are available online. Many books lack footnotes and some collections lack entire volumes. In our editions we strive to provide you with as complete of a set of works as possible, even often bringing you more than is found in modern reprints.
5. Tagging and Linking: Many PBB books are pretty sparse on Bible reference tagging and other tagging. Logos books usually include tagging for all Bible references and often lots of tagging to other resources available in Libronix. This isn’t to say that PBB books can’t be thoroughly tagged, just that, as a general rule, they aren’t.
6. Data Types and Searching: For the most part the only data types that you’ll find in PBB books are the Bible data type and (sometimes) page numbers. This means that PBBs won’t be keylink targets and won’t be as searchable as Logos books. PBBs also lack fields and don’t allow you to limit your search to specific portions of text like footnotes, body text, etc.
7. Citations: The source text of many PBBs is unknown or unspecified, so the auto-generated footnotes often don’t contact sufficient information to be useful for articles, papers, books, or other publications. Most Logos books contain all the pertinent information necessary for proper citations.
8. Book Types: PBB books are not able to be categorized as Bibles or commentaries and therefore won’t function the way Logos Bibles and commentaries do (i.e., Bibles won’t appear in the various Bible version tools, and commentaries won’t appear in the commentaries section of the Passage Guide).
9. Notes and Highlighting: You cannot add notes or highlighting and other visual markups to PBB books. Logos books can be extensively marked up and annotated.
10. Support: Since we don’t make the PBB books themselves, we cannot provide the same level of support for them as we do for our own books. If there is a problem with the book itself, you will need to contact the book’s creator, who may or may not be willing to provide support or fix the problem.

The Personal Book Builder is a wonderful tool and serves its purpose well, but it may not be the best tool for building a library of public domain titles. If you are on a tight budget, want to accomplish very simple tasks like reading and basic searching, don’t always need exhaustive texts and a high level of accuracy, and can get by without advanced functionality, the PBB books might be sufficient for you. If any of the 10 items listed about are important to you, the Logos editions may be the better choice.