By Jerald and Sandra Tanner
It was about fourteen years ago when we began a full-time operation at Modem Microfilm Company. Our object was to produce accurate literature on Mormonism. It was only by faith that we launched out on this project, and it has been through faith that we have been able to carry on. Although we have passed through some deep waters during these fourteen years, it seems that the Lord has always provided us with the strength and resources to continue the work. Our lowest point was probably 1966 when we decided we would have to sell out all of our reprints and possibly go back to only a part-time work on Mormonism. Fortunately, however, our book Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? began to sell so fast that we were able to survive the crisis and even enlarge our operations. In 1977 we were able to purchase a printing press that is about three times as fast as the one which we had for over a decade. This has made It possible for us to reprint many of our publications and to do some new books as well. The reader should consult our new book list to find out what we have available.
Within the next month or two our sales on Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? will probably have mounted to over 30,000 copies, and there is no evidence that interest is declining. Since we feel that our work is really a missionary effort, we have tried to charge the lowest price possible for the literature and still stay in business. While many books have doubled in price, the 1972 edition of Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? actually declined from $8.50 to $7.95. We find, however, that with the mounting price of paper and other costs we can no longer continue at such a low margin of profit, We have held the line as long as we possibly can; therefore, we have decided that we must raise the price to $9.95 ($11.95 for hard-back binding). We feel that this is still a real bargain because most publishers would charge 15 or 20 dollars for a book of this size.
We have previously paid postage on mail orders, but since postage on books has more than doubled we will have to ask our customers to send an additional 10% for postage and handling.
We are temporarily short on funds, but when we consider the circumstances it is amazing that we have done as well as we have. It took about a year to prepare the manuscript for Moody Press and we will not receive any royalties until some time after it appears in print. The publication will probably be somewhat delayed because of the change in the Mormon doctrine on blacks.
This change has made it necessary for us to rewrite the chapter concerning Mormon theology and blacks. Although the future looks very bright, at the present time we are functioning with a limited amount of capital. This, of course, makes our work less effective. For instance, we are forced to print very limited quantities of the works listed on our booklist. This wastes a great deal of time because we are forced to jump back and forth from one project to another. This time could be better spent getting out new material. With more capital we could run things a lot smoother and have far better results in getting the truth out. A number of people have sent us gifts and these have been greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, however, these gifts cannot be deducted from a person’s income tax because we are not a nonprofit organization.
In the past some of our friends have helped us with loans which we have been able to repay. If anyone is interested in loaning some money at the present time we could pay 10% interest. A loan of $1,000 would return $100 interest within a year (12 monthly payments of $91.67) or $200 if loaned for two years, and $5,000 would bring $1,000 interest if loaned for two years. We could use any amount between $500 and $5,000 and would sign a promissory note to make the matter legally binding. We feel that this would be a good investment, and it would help us to make our work more effective.
While most people will not be able to help this work in a financial way, all of our Christian friends are able to pray for us and for the Mormon people. The scriptures say that the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). We feel that the Lord has really blessed our work and that it is being widely used as a tool to bring Mormons to the knowledge of the true Gospel. We believe that with the Lord’s help we can weather the present storm and that thousands of Mormons will come to a knowledge of the truth.
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