Saturday, September 13, 2008

Online Everything: Publishing Plans




I was hoping to switch university teaching to 90% online, and that is happening. The vast economic changes are disruptive for many people, but that causes them to go back to school for the bachelor's degree or a graduate degree. In Phoenix, most of the jobs were either selling real estate, building homes with fraudulent mortgage money, or selling no-doc liar loans. Obviously, reality made thousands of jobs disappear overnight, especially here and in California.

Online teaching is growing fast because it is so convenient for the military, for mothers who work outside the home, and for busy professionals. My former boss of bosses at one school, wildly successful, was hired to run my other school, which was already growing faster than kudzu.

Now I can earn a living at my desk at home: teaching online, banking online, publishing online. A year ago I was hoping for jobs in Tucson (240 miles round-trip) and Yuma (400 miles round-trip).

Publishing is going in three directions:

1. I am going to make every book and article available for free: PDFs on Lulu.com, e-books from other sources, files on my redesigned website.
2. I am providing printed books on Lulu.com at a reasonable cost. That allows people to buy a book with a credit card from anywhere in the world.
3. I will get the broadcasting files in order and post them properly, but that will come later.

Publishing is non-profit. There is a little income, easily used up by research and equipment costs. But publishing Lutheran materials is enjoyable, fulfilling, and a lot of fun. I would rather write for free than get a lucrative sinecure for promoting books of dubious value.