A Longstanding Friendship Brings About New Book Series
I first met Reggie Weems at one of those conferences I was attending in the early 2000s–I do not recall whether it was Together for the Gospel or, maybe more likely, Shepherds’ Conference near Los Angeles. Anyway, we connected. I was living in the UK at the time, and he was residing in eastern Tennessee.
I remember speaking to him by phone one day. Somehow, he had gotten my number, and the distinctive tones of his voice enabled me to remember that he was “the man I had met at the conference.” The name and the face (at the stimulus of the voice) immediately connected with me.
“Might you be able to write a book on missions?” I remember asking him once while we were having dinner in Johnson City (I was visiting him and a book distributor on the same trip). He had already contributed a few books to the publisher I served at the time, Day One. He had me enthralled as he told me of his various strategies for fostering a vision and sensitivity for global missions in his church, a Southern Baptist congregation, well named Heritage Baptist Church. It was my pleasure to superintend the publishing process of that book, as well as having overseen the earlier publications.
Smoky Mountain Range: Hills of North Carolina / Eastern Tennessee, not far from where Reggie lives.
Thinking of a New Series. . .
With changes in my circumstances and my no longer working for the same UK-based publisher, the friendship continued without interruption. Then one day Reggie called me: “I have some manuscripts that I think could work well for books,” he informed me. “They are the fruit of some things I am doing with my congregation at the moment, and deal with real issues my people are struggling with.”
As he continued, the vision grew for me. Reggie, ever practical in meeting the needs of his congregation, ever faithful in his application of the Word of God, ever hardworking and diligent to present the counsel of the Scriptures in an understandable format, outlined to me the kinds of topics he wished to write on. He intended them to be “a series of books that offer biblical encouragement and practical direction on matters of concern to modern Christians.” That may be a broad-brush description, but take a look at some of the titles that we were to kick off with:
“You’ll need a website to help promote these,” I guided him. “I think there is enormous potential in this concept. When can we start?”
Start we did late in 2017 and worked intensively to produce the first four. The books are available for physical purchase in print as well as in Kindle format. Each book is under 10,000 words in length, produced on a small, paperback format (small enough to fit in a pocket or purse, usually around 80 pages), and written in brief, easy-to-read chapters with key review points and quotes highlighted for easy reference. You can find out more about the series (and check out some previews) at the dedicated website HERE.
The books are available worldwide and Amazon offers easy purchasing and shipping options for most customers.
The cover design of the book caught my eye as well as the title. “Who Moved My Cheese?” it asked. It was a slender volume, no more than 96 pages as I recall, and it told the story of a number of mice that had to face change in life. The longstanding supply of cheese from which they have helped themselves is no more. “What is to be done in securing more cheese?” is the challenge facing these four mice. Written as a parable that takes place in a maze, the story engagingly describes Sniff and Scurry, and their associates, Hem and Haw, and how they go about finding more cheese. Spencer Johnson’s intention is to introduce readers to the concept of positive change and how to cope with it. The book makes for engaging reading.
The “Big A” has changed a lot of things. At one time, nobody took Amazon too seriously, but not so anymore. Amazon’s ability to operate on a relatively low overhead and to have negotiated specially preferential, volume-related relationships with shippers has dealt the death knell to many vendors who had maybe become comfortable with the status quo. The reality is that people’s buying habits have changed and continue to do so. Most people today are quite relaxed in making online purchases.
Working in publishing significantly connected me with some fairly well-known authors, including people like John Blanchard, John MacArthur, Andy McIntosh, Roger Ellsworth and many others (you could see a part list 
Making a Plan
As good J C Ryle said, “The best way to do something is to do it.” So I decided that the best way to start was by pushing ahead in some projects, feeling my way forward using social media and making myself as useful as I was able to. Principles lead to empiricals. “Just try doing it,” I counseled myself. One of the concerns driving me was to establish fair competency in website building and development, so while working on some editing projects for P&R Publishing, I also forayed into the world of Google-Sites and WordPress, soon finding the latter to be quite powerful, and that even eCommerce was not as complex as it might first seem. With thanks, under God, for free online tutorials and perusing numerous FAQs, it was not long before I found my way forward in developing websites for other people to help them promote their writing ministries. These include 
An email that dropped into my in box from an online form submission from one of my websites was very interesting, and even more so when I phoned the man from whom it originated. “I represent a publishing family,” he said, “And in doing due diligence, we wish to establish whether you might be the right person to help in their publishing ministry.” It was an extra surprise, a pleasant one, too, to learn that the publishing family was none other than that of Tedd and Margy Tripp. Tedd (pictured here) is well known for his remarkable book Shepherding a Child’s Heart, a manuscript derived from a doctoral thesis that nobody wanted to publish when he first wrote it, so it ended up being self published (under the quickly thought-up name of Shepherd Press). Now with a sales history of well in excess of a million copies, it is a book that has challenged, blessed, and guided countless parents and teachers over the years. To cut a long story short, following a weekend visit to northern Pennsylvania, there commenced a relationship between me and Shepherd Press that enables me to be of service in the promotion and development of the ministry, and to help in recruiting new authors and rolling out of new resources. That’s just one of the various things that I love doing. You can find out more about Shepherd Press 
Because the Shepherd Press work is flexible and part-time, there are many other things that I do in publishing. Like when Simon Robinson, my good friend in England, told me that he had been writing some notes all about anxiety. “I think we should make a book of it,” I ventured. “If you could get to 31 readings, it could even become a daily reading book.” Simon warmed to the idea immediately and soon after we were exchanging emails and sharing ideas. The outcome not long afterwards was a book in a black and red cover with an anxious man regarding people holding the book—the man on the cover that is—with 31 easy-to-read chapters, complete with Bible reference, application points, and a suggested prayer to pray—even if just to prime the pump, as it were–all to strategically help readers get over the worry factor.
A family situation arose in which we felt that our time in South Africa was coming to an end and that relocation to the UK was necessary. By the late 1990s, I had developed significant and strategic relationships with several UK- and US-based publishers, so it was not entirely an unexpected development for me to receive a job offer from Darlington-based Evangelical Press, now known as EP Books. David Clark’s crisp voice on my cell phone as he spoke to me from England (I was in the bank in Johannesburg at the time) spoke confidently of EP’s interest in hiring me, and in due course, the contract was signed for my impending position of International Sales Manager, with particular activity anticipated in developing sales in the North American market.
Jim Dearmore was a Texan in Africa. His story was remarkable for its adventure and spiritual verve. He and his wife, Georgia, had been missionaries in the Congo and then moved to what was then Rhodesia before ending up in the northern regions of South Africa, where they continued their missionary endeavors. His outspokenness against Marxist doctrine made him the kind of person who probably would not be welcome to stay in the country once an ANC government was established. He was one of my favorite customers, a godly man, a no-nonsense American in whom there was no guile. I loved the way his gas-guzzling 1970s automobile drove into the parking lot, so much like a great ship, taking as it seemed several minutes to come to a halt as it berthed. From deep within its recesses (it may have been a Cadillac; it was huge) he would emerge, his short white beard outlined against the greenery in the background. His eyes were kindly, always twinkling. His voice deep and his drawl slow and pronounced, he always spoke wisely and well, often punctuating his speech with apt quotations from the Bible, always in the King James version.
I loved his straightforwardness, his directness, his call-a-spade-a-spade mentality. He was no stranger to hardship and to hard work. One day he told me about his A B Dick, a printing press he housed in his garage. With relocation back to the USA in mind, he needed to sell it, and he considered that I should buy it. At the time, I was running the book business I had started, and it involved quite a lot of printing that I usually got done in a copy center in Johannesburg. I was also editing a magazine at the time, Reformation Africa South, so that put me in connection with a commercial printer, Leonard Venter. Len was another character. Everything he described was “fantastic.” I mentioned Dr. Dearmore’s offer to sell his A B Dick press to me. In his Germiston accent he enthusiastically said to me, “Fantastic! Jim, my boet, let’s go check out the doctor’s printing press.” A few days later, riding along in his Toyota Camry at around 100mph, we made the long journey north of Pretoria to Dr. Dearmore’s location in a very short space of time.
The deal agreed some weeks later, we knew we would need space to house it, so a few months later, we commenced building a double garage on our Strubens Valley property. Getting the press from where Dr. Dearmore had housed it to our location was challenging; it weighed more than a ton. And it arrived with a bewildering number of rollers and peripheral items, all with special names and functions that would need to be learned!
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