Support the Work
Background
Portage Publications is an educational entity with a commercial form. We quite probably could qualify as a so-called "not-for-profit" entity, and obtain tax exemption for ourselves and our donors. However, we think that the chains that come with that designation are not worth any price. Our shareholders understand that this is primarily a ministry, and we manage the business primarily to maximize the usefulness of the ministry. Nevertheless, our employees need to provide for families, and our shareholders need to receive a reasonable rate of return on their investment.
Portage Publications provides two different, but related, products. The first is electronic books or e-books. The second is old-fashioned printed books. (Until we get a storefront set up on this website, printed books must be ordered by directly contacting us.)
The main value that Portage adds is in the creation of the e-books, that is, the selection, transcription, formatting, indexing, cross-referencing and typesetting of the books. Most of the work and cost of then converting that e-book into a hard-copy printed document is done by printers. The e-book is less-expensive to produce, since the ability to produce a printed copy requires all of the cost of creating the e-book, plus the additional costs of printing, binding, shipping, warehousing, etc. However, in many ways the e-book is more useful than the printed book, especially to those doing research. It can be delivered instantly, searched electronically, and cross-referenced with hyperlinks to other parts of the same document, or to other documents.
The revenue model for printed books is old-fashioned and straightforward, that is, a reasonable price is set, customers buy the book, and we ship it to them. The revenue model for e-books is much less straightforward. Unless protected, an e-book can be duplicated at a cost that approaches nothing. All of the protection mechanisms that we have seen so far are cumbersome at best. More importantly, remember that Portage is primarily a ministry. We would rather have you read the book and not pay for it than for you to pay for it and not read it. Now, we hope that you will both read it and pay for it if you are able to do so.
We therefore have chosen a contribution-based revenue model for the books that are currently available on our website. Please download them and copy them freely for non-commercial purposes, regardless of your ability to pay. We have placed suggested donation amounts for each book. These are guidelines only, and represent what we might charge for the book under a more straightforward buy-and-ship model. If you are able to, and wish to do so, please make a voluntary contribution to the support of this work commensurate with the value you receive. If you are able, please also consider making an additional contribution to help subsidize those who need these works but are not able to pay for them.
Make a Donation
To make a donation using PayPal or your credit card, please click the "Make a Donation" button below.
Commercial Licenses
We want to make it convenient for you to include Portage e-books in your own commercial products if you wish to do so. There are only two additional requirements over the "voluntary contribution" model described above, both enforced primarily by the "honor system":
- The "Suggested Donation" becomes a required license fee. The amount is the same, but it is no longer voluntary. If you license 10-99 of the same item at the same time, take a 10% discount. If you license 100 or more of the same item at the same time, take a 20% discount. If your needs require a greater discount, please contact our Sales Department.
- Let us know the name and contact information of the licensee, what product(s) were licensed, in what quantities, the date or range of dates they were used or sold, a brief description of how they were used, and a reference to the contribution receipt identifiction number from the payment system. This provides a reference that will be useful in the unlikely event of a dispute. Send this information to our Sales Department, either by email or through one of the means listed on our Contact Page.
Royalty-free licenses and licenses for the underlying XML documents and style sheets can also be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Output in other formats (such as Adobe FrameMaker or Microsoft Word, for example) is also possible as a service. Please contact our Sales Department for details.