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Poll: What is the Demand for Fanning?

16 Comments Posted by Mike Aubrey on September 27, 2009

Oxford University Press is apprehensive about publishing a paperback version of Fanning’s monograph Verbal Aspect in New Testament Greek [Oxford Theological Monographs] because it was so expensive to produce initially and the demand hasn’t appeared to be very high.

Now I know that there are a number of other readers of my blog who are interested in Fanning’s book and I know that many of you have also expressed your regret about it’s price.

But I would appreciate it if you would be willing to vote in a poll saying whether you would be interested in purchasing Fanning’s book if it provided as a lower priced paperback edition rather than a $240 hardcover (paperback prints of Oxford Theological Monographs appear to be retail priced between $45 & $60), which is still somewhat high, but definitely, definitely more accessible for the average Joe – and I’m sure this is a book that the average Joe would love to have!

And please, if you voted, “YES” and mean it, spread the word about this poll! I would like to get a significant number of votes & send the results to Oxford if possible. But I would need a good number of voters before I did that.

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16 Responses to Poll: What is the Demand for Fanning?

Thomas September 27, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Get them to publish it for Libronix and I might consider it. I don’t need any more dead trees to move though.

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- Mike Aubrey September 27, 2009 at 11:42 pm
  I’m trying to decide whether you sound like a good B.C.-er conserving trees or just someone whose moved with a couple thousand books one too many times…
  
  Reply
Thomas September 27, 2009 at 11:48 pm
I love the smell of a good book in the morning – don’t get me wrong. I pulled a muscle just two Monday’s ago moving a box of books so put me in the second category! Besides our forestry industry is really hurting and we have lots of pine beetle killed trees to use up before they burn up!

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- Mike Aubrey September 28, 2009 at 12:07 am
  yeah the fires in the Okanagan have been pretty bad this summer…
  
  But you wouldn’t be able to tell that the industry is hurting the way houses are going up in Langley!
  
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Carl W. Conrad September 28, 2009 at 2:18 am
Well, I do wish you success in this enterprise, Mike. I’ve tried to do my part for you because I’ve long wanted to read this book myself — it’s the only book on aspect that I’ve really wanted to read and never had a good opportunity for ILL at a nearby library.

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Steve Runge September 28, 2009 at 6:31 am
I wonder if they could pull together say 50-75 pre-orders for the paperback if they would do it, something like the Logos pre-pub. That way they would know they had sufficient orders to cover the costs.
Alternatively, perhaps Fanning could issue a revised edition of some sort that might free it from Oxford’s grip. Not sure how that stuff works.

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- Mike Aubrey September 28, 2009 at 5:11 pm
  yeah, I don’t know how it works either. But I’m hoping that if they see a reasonable interest here they’d be willing to do something – I’m going to assume that everyone voting here are people who definitely wouldn’t be interested in spending $160+ on it.
  
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Kyle Clark September 28, 2009 at 10:13 am
Perhaps we can get my fellow Southern Baptists involved in this and have a boycott. Nothing destroys opposition like a good boycott!

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- Mike Aubrey September 28, 2009 at 10:18 am
  Baptists are good at that too.
  
  Reply
hypatia September 28, 2009 at 11:21 am
Mike, in the UK the hardback version can be ordered through an Amazon subsidiary for £68.10 plus £6.94 for transatlantic shipping.

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- Mike Aubrey September 28, 2009 at 11:34 am
  Well that is indeed a better price that anywhere I’ve seen int he US, but it’s still rather prohibitive — about $120 after shipping. To put it in context for you, if it were priced at US$60, you’d be paying about £37.80 and US$45 would be £28.35.
  
  But there’s a larger issue here. It isn’t so much about finding a good price for me, but making sure that the best book on Greek aspect is available to more people. My experience is that $120 is a price that is typically only spent by people who are perhaps doing their thesis on Aspect. I want to see Fanning’s work disseminated much more broadly than that. In a perfect world Fanning would be a required text in an advanced grammar class. But is not and cannot happen under current circumstances because of the way Oxford has priced the book. His work is that good and that important and currently, it’s not available and not having the impact it should.
  
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Jason October 1, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Given the prohibitive cost of Fanning’s work, is there a volume that comes in a close second?

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- Mike Aubrey October 1, 2009 at 8:26 pm
  Well, the kind of good new is that Fanning’s book’s price has dropped as of today – I received an e-mail from Oxford that I’ll be posting in a few minutes. The price has been dropped to $135, which is still rather high, but at least better than $240.
  
  Rijksbaron’s Semantics of the Classical Greek Verb is quite relevant for the Hellenistic period. It would be worth picking up. But in terms of what Fanning does in the book, there isn’t really any comparison – though Con Campbell does some similar things in his intro to aspect book.
  
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