New HCSB eBook Editions Available Now, More Coming Soon

I'm excited about our publishing plan for digital editions of the HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible). There's been a lot of downward pressure on prices in the publishing industry. precipitated largely by mass market price wars and the digital revolution. One of the hardest hit is the bestselling book of all time, The Bible, available (as it should be) free almost anywhere you look online. So, how does a Bible publisher exist when the core text is free?

Don't fight it.

We are releasing several editions of the HCSB at different price points, the core of which is the HCSB: Digital Text Edition. All the footnotes, cross references, and textual links have been removed, funky line breaks and formatting issues have been cleaned up, the words of Christ are rendered in black, not red, for optimal display on e-ink devices, the table of contents links to the chapter level only--all of which provides a very clean presentation that is easy and fast to navigate. It is the cleanest version of the HCSB text and it is free. It is available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD, Sony, iBooks (Dear Apple, please give us a way to link to product pages for iBooks like you have for apps), and others coming online soon.

The HCSB: Digital Reference Edition has also been updated and optimized for easy reading on digital devices. It includes more than 35,000 links to textual notes, alternate readings, explanatory notes, cross references, and Old Testament citations in the New Testament. THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND LINKS. Let that sink in for just a minute. It is available for $9.99. It is also available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD, eBooks.com, Sony, iBooks, and others coming online soon.

The ebook edition of the HCSB Study Bible is still being optimized for use on ebook devices. In addition to the 35,000+ linked footnotes from the Reference Edition, the Study Bible also includes links more than 15,000 study notes and essays, 290 word studies, and 250 photographs, maps, illustrations, and charts. While the ebook version is still in development, we continue to get rave reviews for the iOS app and free online version at MyStudyBible.com.

The HCSB: Word Study Edition is also in development now. It is the reference edition with additional links to the Strong's Greek & Hebrew Dictionary definitions for the original language root words behind the English words. While this is still in development for most ebook reading devices, it is available now from Olive Tree for iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Symbian, or find links to Strong's Definitions on any web enabled device at MyStudyBible.com.

Each of these editions offer additional content and varying depths of connectivity providing the reader with different tools around which the value can be established, while at its core the Bible is free--as it should be.