We are pleased to report that the Ninth Printing of the The URANTIA Book is in the final stages of production. If all proceeds according to schedule, the entire manufacturing process of the Ninth printing will be completed by the latter portion of December. The contract for the Ninth Printing calls for the production of 30,000 copies of The URANTIA Book, which is an increase over the average figure of 25,000 copies produced for the Fourth through the Eighth Printings. Distribution of the Ninth Printing should begin in late winter or early spring when the inventory of the Eighth Printing will be exhausted.
Even though figures are not yet available for the month of December, distribution (which includes both sales and donations to libraries) of the English version and the French translation of The URANTIA Book has reached a combined total of 10,000 copies for this year. Since 1982, when we began distributing the French translation, in addition to the original English version of the book there has been only one year, 1984, in which the combined total number of copies distributed has not exceeded I0,000 books. So far for this year, distribution of The URANTIA Book stands at a little over 8,600 copies and somewhat more than l,400 copies of Le Livre d'Urantia. If the current distribution pattern for both versions of The URANTIA Book remains firm through December, the total number of copies distributed in 1986 should certainly reach 10,500 or more books.
With the end of this year, a total of more than 152,000 copies of the English version of The URANTIA Book will have been distributed since its initial publication in 1955. The total number of copies of the French translation distributed since its first publication in 1961 should reach approximately 18,500 books at the conclusion of this year. The combined total for both versions will be about 170,500 copies.