Whats happened to Commentary Press (page 4)

blondie

Let's say my source is direct and you are way off in your guesses. I'm under no obligation to give any details. Her life is her own.

About a year after Ray died, Commentary Press was basically disfunctional. I knew Dan D., one of Ray's closest friends, and he gave me basically exclusive rights to sell the book until they got Commentary Press back online. Dan's wife was working on that. Both Dan and his wife had helped Ray probably more than anyone in his last days. Great people.

The prices on Amazon were ridiculous. I bought up several hundred from Ray and sold them for like $25-$30 on amazon for a few months, and all the other prices on Amazon were insane. Naturally I went through a lot of them quickly. But it was tiresome. Selling things anymore is not profitable. If you are going to write your own book, you will be sadly disappointed at how well it is received unless it is a hot topic! You WILL lose money.

Then it was decided that Dan's wife would take over for awhile until the remaining hardbacks (older version) was exhausted (they had quite a few taking up space), and then Amazon would PRINT and SELL them. So after 20+ years of selling his book at a marginal profit, it was announced that this change was going to happen. No one could get Crisis books from them, only used on Amazon.

It never did materialize with Amazon. I have no idea what happened after that. Now they are $150+ on Amazon, and they are the older, hardback version.

After selling Ray's books for about 20+ years (never got a thank you once from Ray in spite of selling thousands of copies at minimal profit) I got so frustrated I just let it go. Ray never cared for me or the fact that I published an expose' of what happened at Bethel a year before he wrote his book - no one at Bethel seemed to have the balls to write anything, or knew much about all the events. Only Tom Cabeen could have written such a book (and he actually printed it and the others for Ray). But I was still a Bethel Elder after he left, and heard some things he didn't know about. Big deal. It is all here: http://www.freeminds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=408:what-happened-at-the-world-headquarters-of-jehovahs-witnesses-in-the-spring-of-1980&catid=32:brooklyn-bethel&Itemid=347

Here it is years later and nothing has happened. I am about to close down selling anything, as it is just too much work for the returns I make. Instead, I offer a lot of free downloads, mainly PDFs of things:

http://www.freeminds-store.com/downloads.html

and

http://www.freeminds.org/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=sections&Itemid=675

I will not sell books until I am 90 years old like Ray did. I have my own supporters and don't need to sell anything.

Maybe it will be printed by Amazon eventually... but may be too old by then.

Sad situation. Ray had a lot of good info. But he didn't see it all.... only from a GB perspective.

And he was not around to report on the aftermath.

Randall Watters

http://freeminds.org

cedars

Wow, that was a real story from the trenches. Very sad.

Thanks for sharing that Randy. You're doing a great job in doing whatever little you can do. I especially loved your recent video interview with Steven Hassan.

Cedars

Las Malvinas son Argentinas

Her life is her own.

And...? I did not ask for any specific details. I wished her the best in whatever way she wished to pursue her life now. None of my speculations were insulting or demeaning in any way. In fact they were based on apparently erroneous (according to you and your direct source(s)) comments made earlier in this thread. I am thoroughly amused about how it is not an uncommon thing to see people take it upon themselves to police threads here with a rather snarky attitude. It's not enough to just tell someone they are mistaken, but rather that they had no right to say such things in the first place.

RayPublisher

I'd love to hear more re: what possible reason there would be to block an audiobook of Ray's legacy from a brother that put in hundreds and hundreds of hours of effort to make these two audiobiooks, FREE OF CHARGE.

He offered them on a silver platter to GIVE away to the copyright holder. (which I assume is Cynthia although I do not profess to know with any certainty)

@ Randy - Thank you for selling those books. I ordered the two from you a couple years ago when I was waking up and they helped immensely.

Dogpatch

Hey, if I were Cynthia I would probably want to be distant from it all. It's not her fault, nor is it really anyone's... just things happen the way they happen!

If you want things even more interesting to read that Ray's book (though not a technically informative, but written from a much wider perspective) try these articles:

http://freeminds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=408:what-happened-at-the-world-headquarters-of-jehovahs-witnesses-in-the-spring-of-1980&catid=32:brooklyn-bethel&Itemid=347

My letter of resignation:

http://freeminds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=407:randys-letter-of-resignation-to-the-governing-body&catid=64:bethelites&Itemid=580

The bigger story of the time:

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society: The Critical Years 1975-1997

The above and the "apostate" discussion above it is really most of what you need to know.

Ray was not aware of much of these later developments. I stayed and documented it. :-))

Plus Tom Cabeen and I did political cartoons that tell even more while we were still working in the pressroom!

Cartoons from Bethel: Cabeen's Secret Book!
Cartoons from Bethel: Quak's Caricatures
Cartoons from Bethel: Pressroom Conversion Tales

Freddy, Klein and the Apostate Books

Randy

Also we have the testimony on mp3 of the major players in the Franz drama back then:

http://www.watchtowernews.org/media/video.htm

Ray only knew one part of the whole story. Many of us knew a lot that he never did.

Plus his theology in his second book is very amatuerish and he gives no credit to the multitude of theologians and scholars who came before him.

I am not saying this to discredit him, but he was not too bright on church history.

But Ray was a GOOD man and I still respect him greatly. He is just certainly no scholar.

Randy

Christ Alone

I have to say, as much as I respect ray, randy is right on. The theology in ISOCF is a bit weak and does not go far enough. I will always recommend the books, but ray was a bit stuck in his ex-jwness. Like many are...

Balaamsass

Great thread

Balaamsass

I was at Bethel some of the same time as Randy. I knew Ray and Cynthia. Wish I had known Randy better. I had friends still at Bethel in the 80s. Some of the crap and lies spread by the GB (or allowed to go unchecked) were terrible, just terrible.

Ex-Jws and soon to be EX-JWs can drain you....the angst and pain can be extreme and heartwrenching. My phone rings multiple times per day with ex-jw stuff- and I am just a secret local fader.

I can understand Cynthia wanting/needing peace (if that is what she wants).

A big thanks to all those like Randy who came out of the closet years ago and made themselves available..KUDOS.

moshe

Ray didn't have to do weekly sparring matches on this forum, but if he had, he would have completed the journey he started when he left Bethel. Perhaps he was content with the formula he came up with to explain God and religion- fair enough. He was a decent fellow who had his own beliefs and I was fortunate to visit his home a couple times and eat one of Cynthia's home cooked meals. I feel like he never wished any harm to anyone-

Whats happened to Commentary Press

Share this