The First Literary Agent in Christian Publishing, Part 1

As I shared in my first blog post, as a young attorney I had been introduced to Christian publishing in 1973 when I was asked to mediate a management dispute and deadlock within a Christian publishing house that had been launched in my home town of Santa Ana, California.  After successfully assisting the principals in a resolution that resulted in the creation of Harvest House Publishers in a spin off from the parent corporation, I was asked to serve the parent, Vision House Publishers, as general counsel. 

Shortly after that, in 1974, I was asked to serve as general counsel for the then-in-formation trade association of Christian publishers in America, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).  I did the legal work to organize ECPA and then was asked to continue to serve as general counsel. I served in that capacity for the following 16 years.  Over those years I developed a special place in my heart for Christian publishing.

Because of my work with Vision House and ECPA, and also because I was serving several Christian publishing houses from time to time, a number of Christian authors began to approach me to serve as their publishing attorney.  Those authors included Chuck Swindoll, Gary Smalley and John Trent, Joyce Landorf, Tim Hansel, Max Lucado, Bill Butterworth, David Hocking and at least a dozen more. 

In early 1988, Ken Gire, a young writer on the staff of my client, Insight For Living, called me and asked if he could seek some counsel from me about how he might get his work published.  He told me that he had been trying unsuccessfully for some time.  He said he had been told by friends at Insight for Living that perhaps I could provide him with some counsel and direction. 

I met with Ken, and after we had talked about the publishing process and how a person like him could possibly find a publisher for his work, he gave me a copy of a proposal that he had developed for a series of inspirational books on the life of Jesus, including a couple sample chapters.   He asked if I would review his materials and tell him if I thought he was worthy of publication.  I took the materials and promised to get back to him after I had read them.

Tomorrow I’ll share how reading those materials and my next conversation with Ken became one of the most pivotal turning points of my professional career.