When someone is banned, blocked, and shunned at supposed Lutheran publishing firms, including "independent" lapdog ones - even the micro-mini ELDONUT's bookmobile - the best approach is to distribute books.
Martin Chemnitz Press is expanding the titles available by print and Kindle e-books, not to sell a lot of them, which is impossible without distribution, but to make them available at cost or slightly above cost.
Frank Fiorenza, now enjoying an endowed chair at Harvard University, made this point when I was driving him home from Notre Dame, after class, "I don't care how many books you write, Greg, or how good they are, you have to have distribution."
Like Roland Bainton and Stan Hauerwas, Fiorenza had books everywhere.
I started a blog called Martin Chemnitz Friends since he is the key figure in defining Lutheran Orthodoxy. Last night I told some LCMS classmates that I was not Missouri. Three of them, kidding me, took two steps backwards, and we all laughed. I pointed out that I had about 500 LCMS friends on Facebook, which says something.
Chemnitz is the key figure because he united the divided Lutherans after the death of Luther. He was not alone, of course, but he was the senior editor of the Book of Concord and a genius as rare as Luther himself.
I will use the Martin Chemnitz Friends blog to announce book news and to mention the work of others, because social media attention really matters. I will compose the post on Ichabod the Glory Has Departed and copy it over to Martin Chemnitz Friends.
The new blog is fed onto the author's page on Amazon.
The Plan
I am moving titles to Amazon because the author's price for printed books is far below that from Lulu.com. I was always waiting for their special one-day Lulu sales.
If a church or a group of pastors would like a bunch of books, I will send them at price plus shipping. I can list those prices later. Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant is only $6 printed, without shipping, one third the retail price.
Another advantage of Amazon is the Kindle e-book. Those books are ideal for immediate delivery and use on all mobile devices. I use Kindle for writing so I can copy and paste quotations that include the citation.
People can easily bring their smartphones to class and read from them.
