From time to time we’re approached by (or we approach) a publisher with a Bible or reference title they’d like to distribute through Laridian at no charge. That’s fine with us, of course, especially if they do all the work to create the title with BookBuilder. But some of these folks have second thoughts when they find out that we charge for our reader software. They feel uncomfortable having their work supporting a for-profit company. (Of course if they knew how little profit was in it, perhaps they’d change their minds.) 
I used to use a biblical argument to support the idea that the “laborer is worthy of his wages”. Paul asks “Who serves as a soldier at his own expense?” (1 Cor 9) However, I found that people couldn’t follow this argument. It wasn’t that they thought it didn’t apply in our situation, but rather they just didn’t understand what the passage was even talking about.
So now I take a different tact: It’s OK for people to go to Best Buy and pay $1000 for a computer or $300 for a mobile phone on which to run Bible software. And it’s OK that $50-$100 of that purchase goes to Microsoft or Apple or some other company to pay for the operating system on that computer or phone. When they get the computer home, it’s OK to pay Qwest for high-speed internet access for the computer on which you’re going to do Bible study. Computers require electricity, so it’s OK to pay the local utility company for power to keep the computer running while you do your Bible study. Assuming we’re talking about a home user, and realizing that most people have a mortgage, it’s OK to pay interest to J.P. Morgan Chase or some other big bank for the privilege of having a roof over your computer.
Everyone agrees there’s nothing unbiblical about paying for your computer, operating system, internet access, electricity, and mortgage interest. However, next you want to install Bible software. But God forbid that we should pay the fellow believers who dedicate their lives to creating software to help people study the Bible! Sure, we’ll pay Best Buy, Microsoft, Apple, Qwest, the power company, and the bank — we all know how selflessly dedicated these companies are to advancing the goals of the Kingdom of God — but we’re certainly not going to pay fellow believers to create our Bible study software! That would violate our deeply held Christian principles!
I know that 99% of you reading this blog agree with my argument. It’s great that there are brothers and sisters who donate their time to advancing the Kingdom. But there are some of us who have no other means of support other than what we do to help others understand and apply the scriptures. If we “donate” our time, our kids go hungry. We all think this is obvious, but not everyone does. I thought you might find it interesting that there really are Christians out there who have no trouble supporting secular programmers but balk at supporting their brothers and sisters.
And if you’re in the “Bible software should be free” camp I hope you’ll take a minute to think about who you willingly give your money to (your grocer, mortgage holder, utility company, doctor, plumber, paper boy, internet service provider, mechanic, movie theater, dentist, garbage man, and others) and who you think should go without (your brothers and sisters in Christ) so that you can have cool stuff.
I understand your point, but it also depends on who is doing the work. If the publisher decided to support any and every piece of software they came across, then your argument is fine. However, if they have to decide with their limited resources to choose between A & B, and favour A because it is free and that is important to them, then that’s probably a reasonable decision. I cannot tell which of these two cases it might be from your description (or possibly you are offering to produce the content, in which case that argument does not apply).
I quite agree with what you say about download counts (the argument has been used against me when I complained about certain Bible software: it must be good because X thousand keep downloading it every month). If I’m any representative of their customer base (which, as a software developer, I’m probably not…) then all that means is that new people download it, try it, and then don’t use it again and advise anyone who talks to them about it not to waste their time trying it.
In this case I’m talking about publishers who approach us then change their minds when they find out we charge for our reader, or publisher whom we approach and they’re fine with the idea until they find out we charge for our reader. Obviously there are some who we approach who either don’t want to distribute electronically or they feel they have enough electronic publishers. Those are rare, though — generally if they’re distributing free content they’re looking for all the channels they can find.
So yes, it’s a pretty narrow group. And it’s not so much any one publisher I’m talking about, but rather the mistaken idea that “free” and “commercial” are incompatible, and that free = godly while commercial = worldly.
Do these same publishers give away this content for free when they distribute it? Or do they charge something to offset their production costs.
Unless they are giving it away for free, aren’t they asking you to do something that they aren’t willing to do themselves.
In my mind it means that they don’t understand the value of electronic materials or how the publishing economy is changing away from traditional books.
I agree with you in principle, but I still have a feeling that if I were in a similar position I might do exactly what those publishers do.
Jonathan, I think you’ve nailed the problem. Instead of acting on principles and wisdom, they’re acting on emotions. That’s why they often can’t be convinced — you can’t make someone “feel” differently through logic and application of principles.
Of course, this makes them out to be even crazier than I thought they were.
In my experience people appreciate your services more when they know they need to pay for them, and are less inclined to demand irrational requests as they will feel free to do if the services are for free.
Keep up the good work! Let us know where we can all send you the money to help support your efforts on the android OS before its done/started/finished/or just to say thanks!