Friends, this Tuesday, July 12, marks a milestone for this new book imprint, Lake Drive Books, as our first book (not counting my own) will go live. So I wanted to take a moment to offer five thoughts on what this new venture, almost two years in the making, is about.

ONE. Our world is too homogenized, too safe for a vast majority and not safe enough for others. We need more voices from the margins, with gritty real-life stories, ideas, and insights. That’s where you find hope and a basic sense of faith and trust.

TWO: In our digital lives, the cultural/economic gatekeepers are thankfully much reduced, so it doesn’t matter your gender, skin color, sexuality, health situation, worldview, or economic status, if you put in honest work, you can make an honest impact.

THREE: Publishing has become more top heavy and more commercialized than ever, fighting with a scarcity mindset, giving you less choice, and not seeing the abundance of authors with fresh stories and ideas on the newly robust, grassroots level.

FOUR: We now have tools to publish books on a smaller scale, but it takes agility, patience, and learning new skills in an environment that will at times drive you crazy. But it pays off with perseverance.

FIVE: Personally, I’ve luckily, unexpectedly, and fortunately found out not too late in life that working on a smaller scale, though not easy, has implications for impact that I never experienced in 25 years of working for major publishers.

SO, click around this site to find out more, and check our first book, Faith Doesn’t Erase Grief, by Kate Meyer, on sale on Tuesday! And if you would, subscribe to our newsletter (you get a free ebook) or follow us on social media for updates on this exciting new venture.