From Chicago to the World

Moody Publishers Vice President Greg Thornton addressed the future of publishing in his post earlier this week. Today we see what the future looks like in action.  

By Paul Santhouse, director of acquisitions Moody Publishers
Nothing is more fun than meeting an author for lunch, reaching into your bag and placing a copy of his brand new book on the table. The mouth goes open, eyes tear up and there’s often a gasp—after all those months of toil and patience ... here it finally is!

Book publishing is no hasty business. It can take over a year to release a book. No wonder authors get choked up—they’ve likely given up all hope of ever seeing their book in print!

But things are changing.

When Dr. Paul Nyquist launched Moody Bible Institute’s strategic planning process last year, he challenged each ministry to be agile, think globally and reach beyond the way things normally work. And, if there’s any industry that does things the normal way, it’s book publishing. Busy people in large buildings toiling for months on bulky products that are costly to ship. Where does “nimbly reaching the globe” enter that picture?

Our team wrestled with this for weeks. We purchased a globe and brought it to meetings. Then we taped a world map to the wall and marked up the thirty largest cities. Someone read an article about HP Labs. Though headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., HP’s research labs are located in countries all over the world. How better to serve their global customers than by experiencing life where those customers live?

Suddenly, one of the team members pointed across the street to where the students were walking to class. “Don’t we have students here from all over the world? Why don’t we train them to do publishing?”

It was one of those inspired moments. Thanks to digital technology, start-up publishing no long requires 12 months of lead time or a huge warehouse stacked with pallets. With the right equipment, a few key people in a strategic location can easily publish the Good News in any corner of the globe.

We’ve been working tirelessly ever since. Thanks to a healthy and creative partnership with the Communications faculty, Moody Publishers now sponsors a Moody Bible Institute class in book publishing. Not only are the students learning all the publishing disciplines from veteran staff members, but they are also gaining experience by publishing books of their own during the semester. And let me tell you, these students are bright. The book ideas and author contacts they’re generating would easily pass muster at the best publishing houses.

If you were to visit the conference room where we spent all those hours discussing how things could be, you would now find an entire wall covered with a world map and a copy of Operation World on the table. As we pray for the countries of the world, we ask the Lord of the harvest to send us laborers, so we can train them to return home after graduation and publish the Good News of Jesus Christ in the language of the people they know best—their own.