Four Testaments launch season is drawing to a close, so since “there is no such thing as a free launch,” let me thank the contributing scholars here and there who hosted book launch activities in their institutions. As you may realize by recent delays in ordering from the publisher, these activities triggered sales which caused the first press run to sell out in the first couple of months. So where can you now get books tout suite?

Like publishers everywhere, Rowman and Littlefield are in transition to “printing-on-demand” which avoids advance investment costs and warehousing. With new technology, some publishers can fill an order and have p-o-d books in the mail within two days. Because of its preponderance in the field of educational texts, R&L is a giant operation and has stuck with launching via a traditional first press run, and is not yet up to the speed of some of its competitors thereafter … currently guaranteeing to fill orders in 15 days.

Like Three Testaments before it, despite its academic content, Four Testaments was written in a readability just a notch above the National Geographic style, accessible to intelligent general readers. Some of you may be anxious about gifting Four Testaments in the holiday seasons, so unless you have another reliable connection, let me suggest that you order from Amazon or Barnes & Noble rather than the publisher. These two houses themselves maintain a larger on-hand inventory for immediate fulfillment of orders of this book. They also offer occasional discounts and can ship your online order directly to your gift recipient, noting that it is a gift from you.

I am personally pleased that such activities coincide with our efforts to attain wide circulation in the first year of the Four Testaments book, en route to the desired “standard work” status for the 3T / 4T set by the time boxed sets of the paperbacks become available next autumn. Perhaps more relevant re quick orders for those with either Three Testaments or Four Testaments on reading lists for their students in 2017, it is now important to have bookstores on campus carrying pre-ordered stock for your classes, whether in seminary or in the growing proliferation of Departments of Religious Studies in universities.

These sales are all directly or indirectly driven by the realization that “faith relations” are as critical as “race relations” in the news and current events of our time. In that regard, let me wish “happy holydays” to many of you and “Happy New Year” to all.

Brian