Every year at this time I look forward to looking through all of the new catalogs for publishing houses to see what new works are coming out. Every year I celebrate and cheer at so many great writings. Every year I also wince a little and get frustrated that there are still many resources or books I wish were being written. This year is no exception. Zondervan’s Playful Puppies Bible tops my list. On Amazon, it reads that it is a deluxe edition and leather bound! Are you freakin’ kidding me?! I have nothing against puppies, I have a dog I quite like. There’s a larger story at play here.
For a little more than a decade now, I unintentionally began a tradition. At Fall conferences I talk with acquisitions editors of publishing houses about Bibles. In particular, a Bible which is accessible for friends with disabilities. I am thankful for the advent of e-readers and know the game is changing but there is still something about holding your own Bible and being able to know the rhythm of its pages. To know where you have made notes and written dates and experiences.
I dream of a Bible which is, most importantly, spiral bound. For many of my friends this one feature would be the difference between being able to open and read their own Bible and having to rely on someone else because the Bible could lie flat on their lap. I dream of a Bible which has wide margins on the left and right for friends who are unable to write notes in tiny print. I dream of a translation that is accessible to a wide variety of reading levels and with a font size that allows friends with poor vision to see the words. Finally, I dream of the entire Bible being made this way, not just a book or two. I am aware of the challenges, of the possibility that it might require two volumes or some other modification. I also know I have 400-page books that are printed on lightweight paper in order to reduce the book’s weight.
In this time when we have Bibles geared to girls, boys, teens, teens who like skating, business people, stay at home moms, alcoholics, workaholics, archeology and ecology, surely the marketing for a Bible which is accessible would not be that difficult. Even more, I see Bibles encased in metal with a magnet enclosure, whose binding is hot pink crocodile print with inserts of stories for girls and Bibles worked up as magazines or graphic novels. A spiral bound Bible suddenly seems like a walk in the park!
I have talked with Thomas Nelson, Zondervan, IVP, Chalice Press, Oxford, Wm. B. Eerdmans, Group, Blackwell, Jossey Bass and countless others at AAR/SBL, Youth Specialties and any other conference where I have been able to meet with someone. I know they don’t all specialize in Bibles but I thought such a project might interest them enough to pursue it. Some of these publishers however do have entire divisions devoted to Bible acquisitions. I have written and called. What I have been told is that there is no market for such a Bible. That the disability community is too small to warrant the cost and effort that it would take to create such a book. This despite the fact that disability cuts across gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status and geography.
Am I really to believe that the community of those who love puppies is larger than the community of those in this country and around the world who live every day with a disability? According the US Census, in 2010 there were 54 million Americans with disabilities. According to the Humane Society, there are 78 million owned dogs in the US, and nearly 40% of homes own at least own dog. With a US population hovering around 310 million, some rough estimates would place that at 120 million dog owners. Surely, not every dog owner or person with a disability would want a specially made Bible. Then again, both communities dwarf the estimated number of skateboarders worldwide (18.5 million in 2002), at least according to that venerable font of all knowledge, Wikipedia.
Am I really to believe that those in the publishing houses are prohibited from seeing the marketing possibilities? While I began this idea with teens with disabilities in mind, I can only imagine the brilliance of a publishing house in design to allow this to be marketed to older children and adolescents who like to doodle, heck, to adults who like to doodle or take notes. For those taking Bible classes to make notes or cross references in the margins for study. For our senior saints who would also benefit from a Bible that does not close in their lap and allows aging hands to handle it with ease for turning pages and making notes.
Refusing to design a Bible for those with disabilities is shocking to me in this day. ADA was passed over two decades ago and it is the church which is still trailing instead of leading the world. Theologically, this is shameful. Morally, it is embarrassing. My hope is that some Bible acquisitions editor reads this post and one day writes to thank me for sending a softball his or her way. If you know of such a person, feel free to forward this post!
I don’t even have a disability but would be super interested in a Bible like that. How many preachers would use a Bible that we could set open on the pulpit or carry without having to do that awkward “fold back my leather bound Bible” thing?
What a great idea! I hadn’t even thought of that and I am always losing my place or dropping papers from bookmarks. Thanks for the affirmation!
I’ll second that! A Bible that lays flat on a desk or lectern with extra-wide margins for writing notes? Surely the market also includes every seminary student, Sunday School teacher, study group leader, pastor, and armchair theologian, disabled or not. Sign me up!
Great post Amy! I also want to see a bible our adult friends with intellectual disabilities can use!
Thanks Laura Lee. Keep reading some of the comments below…there are a few new options I didn’t know before! I know you are a woman always looking for great resources and who already has so many. Thanks for your continued advocacy
I would LOVE a Bible like this and I’m not disabled. A spiral-bound Bible, with wide margins…amazing. I hope someone does pick this up. And, your line “being able to know the rhythm of its pages.” is the best description of reading a real book that I’ve ever heard. This is why I don’t want an e-reader and use many more words to describe why, to people who ask. This is a beautiful and perfect phrase to use. Exactly.
I would be interested in a spiral bound Bible too. I journal a lot and always used a spiral bound notebook. BTW there are Bibles with large margins for writing or doodling in as well as one that has every other page blank for even more room to write.
I came here from Rachel Held Evans, and will admit that it didn’t even occur to me that spiral binding would be for those with disabilities. My first thought was, “Whoa! I want one of those!” a Bible that could actually lie flat on the kitchen table? Be set down in the pew while I tend to a child? Write notes in without having to follow the curve of the gutter? FANTASTIC! Please keep pursuing this. Maybe you’ll have better luck if you consider describing it as a moms’ Bible or a family Bible or a kitchen table Bible, I don’t know.
I have to admit I’m surprised a Bible like this doesn’t exist already! Why wouldn’t publishers want to minister to the disabled community? Given the number of Bibles that have flopped a la Playful Puppies, why wouldn’t they divert resources toward a sure thing? As you mentioned, a spiral bound Bible would appeal to many other people and situations. I hope a publisher will read your post and take note!
Hi there
‘Am I really to believe that the community of those who love puppies is larger than the community of those in this country and around the world who live every day with a disability?’
Ack. This made me sad. I live in Britain, and am a campaigner (of sorts – i moan on Twitter and write letters to my representative in parliament) for disabled rights. Recently the government introduced a bigger tax on pasties (pastry with meat in) at the same time as it stopped benefits for 500,000 disabled people. There was a much larger outcry for the increase in cost by c. 40cents on a pasty then there was that half a million disabled people, already struggling, would potentially be left destitute.
It is a poverty indeed when the Christian world reflects the rest of the world in this regard. Keep preaching it!
You should start a petition on a site like change.org. It may help publishers get a better idea of how many people would like a spiral Bible. You can count me as a person who doesn’t have a disability requiring a special publishing, but who would still love a spiral Bible with wide margins for notes.
Great idea! I’ll check into that as well!
Love this idea. Sadly, there are many ways people with disabilities are not included or reached out to in the church and the ADA, while a great start, is still somewhat limiting. Keep making noise about this idea and thanks for sharing.
I came over from RHE as well and I think this is a brilliant idea! And you’re right, the potential buyers of such a Bible go beyond people with disabilities. I used to teach high school literature and had some teacher’s editions of textbooks that were spiral-bound. What a boon that design would be to preachers and Sunday School or bible study teachers. Let us know if there’s anything we can sign or add our names to if it would help your case with the publishers.
So great to hear the support from so many of you! Mark Baker-Wright and Dylan Hathaway offered another great idea via a facebook chat. Thanks to their suggestion, we are looking into kickstarter as well!! It seems that for many publishers the idea of marketing this is not something they can imagine and licensing fees make it prohibitive to have it be an independent project. My sweet husband has offered to begin the process by translating a book and eventually the entire Old Testament if necessary. (Yes, it helps to marry a biblical scholar who specializes in languages.) We have another friend we have asked to consider this for the New Testament. We figured if Eugene Peterson could do it, why not us?! I still think a standard translation for seminary students, pastors etc. would be incredible. Your ideas have been great! Thanks!
Just put a link to this page on my Facebook page. Hope that is OK with you. Hard to believe that these spiral bound bibles do not exist. Thank you for writing this article and getting out the word. If we all get on the band wagon things will happen.
Amy, would a Bible in a three ring binder work just as well? I had one for my New Testament course in college and it had large margins on the sides and across the bottom, with plenty of lines for taking notes. It might be more comfortable if it is divided into several smaller binders or used at a table–the whole Bible is pretty heavy and bulky! It did a Google search and found there are still many styles and versions available:
https://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1TSND_ENUS435&q=study+bible+three+ring+binder&oq=study+bible+three+ring+binder&gs_l=igoogle.3…6539.14628.0.14723.43.19.2.22.2.0.129.1550.15j4.19.0…0.0…1ac.rfJ7Karvccg
I was thinking the same thing. I have preferred my planners in the ring-bound format, and think I would prefer the Bible in that format as well. Spiral bounds can be hard to keep nice, although as thick as a Bible would be, the rings would probably be plastic wrapped to prevent tearing. A ring binder would permit carrying just the part of the Bible needed for a particular study, inserting the pages from multiple passages together for quick reference, etc. Either format would invite interaction, e.g., writing in the margins. It was for that accessibility reason that I bought only hardcover Bibles for a long time; they were more like my textbooks, not scary to mark, whereas leather bound Bibles seemed somehow sacrosanct, not to be marked by human hand.
What a wonderful idea. I was thinking the same thing about ring binder over spiral though. I have preferred my planners in the ring-bound format, and think I would prefer the Bible in that format as well. Spiral bounds can be hard to keep nice, although as thick as a Bible would be, the spirals would probably be plastic wrapped to prevent tearing. A ring binder would permit carrying just the part of the Bible needed for a particular study, inserting the pages from multiple passages together for quick reference, etc. Either format would invite interaction, e.g., writing in the margins. It was for that accessibility reason that I bought only hardcover Bibles for a long time; they were more like my textbooks, not scary to mark, whereas leather bound Bibles seemed somehow sacrosanct, not to be marked by human hand.
Another interesting idea! Thanks for the link. I’ll check into it. My only concern initially would be pages ripping when trying to be turned. Do you know if the pages are reinforced? I didn’t find that on my quick check of the link.
When I looked at CBD.com, the binders had 5-ring binder, which would be more sturdy than 3 rings. The rings are spaced so you could add your own notebook paper for extra notes. The print is only 9-point, so that isn’t very large. I suppose compromises have to be made somewhere.
Spiral are made in plastic, not just metal. I have some notebooks from classes at my place of business that have these plastic spirals.
Seeing as normal ‘bible paper’ is very very thin, I don’t know if spiral would be practical for an entire bible. But taking multiple volumes to church would be awkward. But for home study, or even school, this would be great.
I love the idea of a spiral-bound Bible! I’m a church pianist, and the first thing I do with a new music book it to take it to Kinko’s, get them to chop off the edge, and ask that it be spiral bound….so much easier to work with on a piano. I’d love to be able to take notes on a spiral-bound Bible! Keep trying!!
Check this out. Is this what you were after?
http://biblebuyingguide.com/the-writers-bible/
Ooh, and also in multiple translations, too! I like it. Looks like it’s book-by-book only, but that’s definitely in the direction I understand Amy to be looking for. If this can exist, surely larger sets (Gospels, Prophets, perhaps dare I dream even as much as the whole New Testament in a single volume?) aren’t so impossible. Thanks for sharing the link!
Missed the part about “many configurations,” although I do worry about the lack of existing online specification about what configurations exist (“Paul’s letters” is a mentioned collection, though)
Love that there is a link like this our there…and yes, this is getting closer to what I am hoping. I have written to the contact on the site and am still waiting a response. I am so curious how the details of licensing are handled for several translation. I also dare of Old Testament being included as well! I’ll follow up when I hear from the site on this option.
I think this is a wonderful idea, for all people. With the prevalence of “blank Bible” projects on the web, where you sort of home-build a spiral bound Bible, you would think publishers realize there is a large market for this sort of thing.
Wonderful idea! I have 7 children and have a goal to one day hand each one of them a Bible that I fully read, fully marked up and even prayed scripture specifically over their lives. I’d love a Bible like that to pass to them… I’d have plenty of space to write love notes and comments as the Lord leads. The normal “wide margins” are just not enough!
Hopefully all of these comments will find their way into someone’s hands who can make a difference and get one published.
As a mom…I am impressed. What a treasure that would be.
Hi from Wales.
Please go to http://www.easyenglish.info to find easy versions of the Bible including AEE (accessible easy english) for the Learning Disabled – or for anyone with low literacy levels. A man with LD reads from this spiral bound version in our church sometimes. It’s a ministry of Wycliffe Associates UK (Mission Assist)
Having led this project, my husband now leads http://www.easybibles.com. He realised that all over the world the poor, the semi-literate, the marginalised, the prisoner, the uneducated, the disabled should be able to read God’s word in a version they understand. Over 100 languages now have some part of the bible in easy language and obviously we pray whole bibles will gradually come on stream. Some tell us they love the fact they can now have their own Quiet Time reading the bible in words they understand. For the future we’re looking for artists who will produce ‘stories’ in picture form as we’re told the very disabled could sit with a carer and have the story ‘read’ and explained to them as they look at the pictures
We think nothing of providing a visually impaired person with a Braille bible, or having hearing loops for the deaf. The LD have the same right to access the bilbe or church services in a form they can understand.
We’re trying to take Matt 25 v40 seriously!.
What a great resource! Thanks for pointing it out. I will surely pass it on.
As a homeschooling mom – this sounds so awesome. Gathering the children around an oversize Bible that lays flat every morning sounds lovely. I think there’d be a market for that. I know that Sonlight (Homeschool Curriculum) has it’s own publishing house… That might be another direction to look at.
I had never even thought of the homeschooling community for this. Thanks for the idea!
This has been a wonderful surprise to find you here discussing Spiral Bibles!
This is a long post, and I apologize ahead of time if I have overstepped bounds..but the information seemed relevant as many of you are interested in the production of a spiral Bible and in different configurations.
About three years ago, after filling my Bible with margin notes (with ink showing through the pages) – I suddenly realized that a lay flat spiral bound Bible that provided quality writing paper would be a great help in my daily study. Just as you, I searched only to find nothing like this available. As a result, over the following weeks I put together a rough prototype spiral Bible and began putting it to use. In time, as friends began expressing interest I decided it was time to work out a way to produce and make these available. [www.thewritersbible.com] This began what turned into several years of work contacting publishers, translation holders, paper suppliers, printers,…
At the end of the day the results and conclusions were these :
1. There is a market for spiral bound Bibles, but it is not a large one. This is perfectly ok with me because I am not interested in demographics. My only aim is to simply produce and make this resource available to as many as may benefit from its use.
2. Many popular translations of the Bible are very expensive to licence. Because the market is small, this means that the Writer’s Bible is currently available in some translations but not others. (It would take many years and many many Bibles to simply break even from the upfront licensing fees for many modern translations.)
That said, after many rejections, I have been frankly humbled and amazed by several excellent translations who have granted permission to use their texts for these journals.. I am so very thankful for those who have said “Yes! Lets do this!”
3. Since the market is small, these journaling Bibles have to be produced in small quantities. This keeps the production cost per unit very high. It makes sense that major publishers have not offered spiral Bibles to date. There is just not enough profit in it to warrant production under a true business model. I hope this changes, and if The Writer’s Bible is some stimulus to that change, that would make me glad indeed.
Until then, my purpose is to offer these to as many people as possible who might benefit from its use. I have done my very best to create a professional high quality Journal and Note-Taking Bible. It doesn’t have any fancy endorsements on it, or special features like pictures and study aids, but it is exactly what I needed and maybe what you are looking for as well — a simple quality spiral Bible with large text, good writing paper, and LOTS of room to right.
I am so excited to find your group discussing spiral Bibles. Thank you for spreading the word.
Brian Hinson
http://www.TheWritersBible.com
brian@thewritersbible.com
Was just searching for a spiral Bible today, I’m so surprised thier isn’t one. I’m a Bible major at a college and sure would have loved to found a spiril bible. You think one company would make such a project. Makes you feel like its a conspircey against looser bounded bible. Maybe one day !
I have been searching for a spiral bound bible for ages. I am left handed and find writing in a traditional style bible very difficult, it keeps closing while I’m trying to write. If an NIV bible was to be spriral bound it would be excellent. I thought about taking pages out of a bible and putting in a plastic sleeve then using a 3 ring file but I think that would be very large and heavy to take to church every week.