QUESTION:

I am curious how confident you are in the accuracy of your editions of The Saviour of the World poetry by Charlotte Mason.

ANSWER:

I hope these small paperback editions are accurate, but my typing, transcribing, and proofreading may have made some errors (I hope not, but it’s definitely possible).

In all honesty, if I were looking for the best reproductions possible (and money wasn’t an object), I would order the editions that have recently been published from Routledge Revivals. I know, for myself as a homeschooling mom on a limited budget, I would’ve had a difficult time paying $100+ per volume, however. I haven’t seen the Routledge academic versions yet (I tried to order the books via the library at the University of Washington several weeks ago and was told the new books weren’t available yet, although they’re listed on Amazon). I’m assuming the Routledge editions have the original art work included, as well, which my editions do not. I think the Routledge books are probably worth the money if someone has it to spend.

On a personal note, I always wished while my children were growing up that I’d had copies of Charlotte Mason’s poetry on the life of Christ. My children are all grown now, and the various online versions of the books didn’t exist when I was still homeschooling. When this opportunity to bring the poetry books into print first presented itself, I basically decided to put together the inexpensive paperback editions of the books which I’d always wished I’d had for myself.

• Side Note: I personally don’t like reading books online or from pdf printouts due to poor vision.

Because these books are also available in several locations for free online, I suspect the market for them will be very small (possibly even non-existent if current sales are any indication). But whether or not others buy these little books hasn’t been my motivation. I just wanted the books to exist for my own sake (and to be able to give copies to my children, and their children someday). I thought by using the CreateSpace publishing platform for creating my own personal copies, it would also allow others to benefit from having access to the paperbacks, as well.

I priced the books at the lowest possible price allowed by CreateSpace. I would’ve priced them so that I didn’t receive any royalties at all, but that wasn’t an option for copies sold via Amazon (my royalty rate is just pennies per title, though). Also, if anyone orders from other outlets besides Amazon, I receive nothing at all (that’s actually the amount that makes me happiest!). It’s all essentially been a labor of love on my part. Working on these books has made me feel connected to Charlotte Mason in a deeper, more personal way, than I’ve ever felt before. Which makes the effort all worthwhile.

I’m the author of a number of traditionally published books including Frugal Living for Dummies (Wiley) and the bestselling Frozen Assets cookbook series (SourceBooks). When some of my older titles went out of print recently and the publishing rights returned to me, I decided to bring those books back into print myself rather than shopping around to find new publishers. Thus the birth of Simple Pleasures Press. Since I’d already started publishing a couple of titles of my own this year, I decided to throw these poetry titles I’d been working on for my use into the mix, as well.

If someone’s just looking for inexpensive paperback versions of the poetry to read for themselves or with their kiddos, then the ones I’ve put out may be a worthwhile option. You can read more about them here.  But I honestly feel if someone is looking for the best scholarly, most accurate, and complete editions of The Saviour of the World currently available, the academic versions from Routledge Revivals would be their best bet.

Hope that helps.

~Debi