Category Archives: Appian Way Services

Appian Way Press: An Update

First, some sites:

  • Appian Way Press website. This is essentially a catalog of the available titles Appian Way Press has produced. These are either new translations from the Greek, or modernizations from an older English edition. There are currently 45 titles available in multiple formats (Kindle, Audible, Paperback, with some as Hardcover), none of which really existed last year at this time. There is a simple title/author search supported. Kindle/Audible/Paperback/Hardcover links go to Amazon; links (where available) to openly licensed diglots and ePubs go to the Appian Way Press github repositories.
  • Appian Way Press github. Some portion of the titles that Appian Way Press produced in 2025 began with data from the First 1K Years Greek project, which are licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Where this is the case, I’ve produced Greek-English diglots (as PDF) and English ePubs.
  • Original blog post from January 5, 2025.

So how has this grand experiment gone?

As with anything, we’ve experienced some failures and some success.

The Appian Way Press website front page

Failures

The biggest failure is that when I started all this work, I set up Github Sponsors for the project as well as a page on buymeacoffee.com. I offered a few different tiers for Github Sponsors, from simple $5/month all the way up to sponsoring particular translation projects.

I had one github sponsor for a few months (thank you, you know who you are and I still really appreciate the support!). Nobody ever bought me a coffee. The Github Sponsor stuff is still set up, but please, don’t do it. I need to figure out how to take it all down.

Successes

One success is that over time and iteration I figured out how to incorporate generation of page-based person, place, and reference indexes as part of the automated translation/revision process (with a manual clean-up step at the end). This probably only works for my use case, but that’s all I’m really concerned about at this point.

To date I’ve produced 45 different books that are available in at least Kindle and Audible format at Amazon. Most (over 40) are also available as paperback. Some are available as hardcover as well. Every title mentions in its Amazon description and in a disclaimer at the start of the book that it has been created with an AI-based process that also has elements of human curation as part of the process. I document the models used (both LLMs and other ML models) as well as the dates produced. I’m clear and open about this.

The goal has been to produce reasonable and useful translations or revisions of the material, and I think I’ve done that. The goal has also been to price these editions reasonably, which I also think I’ve done. Kindle editions are typically $7.49 or below (and Amazon discounts them based on several factors); Audible editions are typically $9.99 or below (these are also routinely discounted, though you can use Audible credits if you have them). Paperbacks range between $14.99 and $24.99, but are typically $19.99.

The biggest success, however, has been the Audible editions. These are by far the biggest seller. I only began to add Audible editions in June 2025. And for 2025 in total, though only available for half the year, Audible editions make up 68% of the total book orders for the year. Paperbacks are 20%, and Kindle books are 11%. People rarely buy hardcovers of this material (less than 1% of total orders).

The Future?

What does 2026 hold for the Appian Way Press?

Not sure exactly. I do know that I will continue to produce translations and revisions of works produced or used by ancient Christians, and I think I will next turn to Augustine.

However, I am also considering other languages. If these resources are hard to find in reasonably priced modern English, they’re non-existent in other languages. On a whim this past fall, I produced a Spanish language edition of the Works of Josephus. This has sold reasonably well. I’m considering producing other Spanish language editions (probably starting with the Works of Philo, and then some Origen, and then some Eusebius). We’ll see how that turns out. I’m unsure about other languages (I have some ability with Spanish; less so for other languages like French or German). I’d love to do some Korean but have no way to evaluate Korean translations at all.

Thank you!

If you’ve read this far, thank you! If you’ve downloaded an openly licensed edition I’ve created or purchased something from Amazon, thanks doubly so. I hope you found the resources useful.

The big question: What authors or works am I missing that you’d like to read? If you have suggestions, please leave a comment. Pointing to sources is even better if you can.

Thanks again, and Happy New Year!

Consolidating the Side Hustles

I seem to have a number of irons in the fire at any given time. There is always the “day job” at Faithlife, which even after 29+ years, I still enjoy, find mentally stimulating, and feel like I’m doing work that is valuable for the kingdom. I want to make clear that I plan on my primary gig being working for Faithlife as long as they’ll have me. But —

I also research and write (like Fragments of Christianity) and self-publish. I’ve written introductions and translations that have been published in collections of NT Apocrypha by Eerdmans (More NTA1, More NTA2, and the forthcoming More NTA3; thanks, Tony). I also have recently published an article in a volume on Titus by Mohr Siebeck.

I’ve translated and edited volumes for Lexham Press, including The Apostolic Fathers: A New Translation; Greek Apocryphal Gospels: A New Translation; The Lexham English Septuagint. I was intimately involved with the development of the Lexham English Bible New Testament and its source the SBL Greek New Testament. On top of all of that, I have a volume on Old Testament Pseudepigrapha to be published by Lexham Press that I’ve been working on with three other editors/translators.

I’ve published reader editions of some Christian Apocryphal writings in Greek for my Appian Way Greek Readers series. This involved keying, multiple proofreading passes of the Greek, code to add lemmas and glosses, edits and revisions to existing translations and glosses, indexing, and some crazy gymnastics with MS Word to make it all work. The series currently has two volumes: 1 Apocr. Apoc. Jn and Acts of Pilate and the Descent of Christ to Hades. I’d like to do more and have a specific writing in mind to target next.

I’ve also recently begun some contract data work for a company that focuses on innovations in Bible translation as support to Bible translators and translation agencies. Not to mention I’m (trying) to write the Baylor Handbook on the Apostolic Fathers volumes on the Shepherd of Hermas.

It’s busy. It’s crazy. It’s also time to bring it all under one umbrella and set myself up to be able to take on this part-time contract sort of work a little easier come tax time. So it is time to introduce:

Appian Way Services

I don’t even have a logo or a website yet, but that’s OK. I do have a website for the Appian Way Press that I haven’t touched in years, it may be time to totally rework/reimplement it because it needs help (and is totally done on the cheap).

OK, time to answer some questions:

Why “Appian Way Services”?

Well, I’ve used the name Appian Way Press for self-publishing, even though it wasn’t really a formal thing. Now it is. The state business license and city business license were recently approved, and I’m officially in business.

Where did “Appian Way” come from initially?

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the street I lived on was called “Appian Way.” When I needed a name for self-publishing, it seemed an easy thing to use. And my current street name was not an option.

What does Appian Way Services Do?

Appian Way Services provides services to individuals and publishers in the areas of: Ancient Language translation, editing of ancient language translations, proofreading of Greek text, developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading. In addition Appian Way Services can provide data conversion and text manipulation services for publishers, people and organizations in academic contexts, and Bible translation agencies.

What doesn’t Appian Way Services Do?

Appian Way Services does not index books. It is painful enough to index my own stuff.

Will Appian Way Press ever publish stuff not written by Rick?

Not in the foreseeable future. But we could provide services to people who have written material and want to self-publish something.

Could Appian Way Services do some work for me (or my academic project/grant)?

Maybe. Possibly. Send me an email (textgeek at gmail dot com) with some description, and we can talk.