Tom Horn, CEO Defender Publishing Group

How Getting Published Could Change The Course Of Your Life 

A personal word from Tom Horn:

In the mid-1990's I decided to do something I had put off for many years. I wanted to write a small book based on observations I had made during my years of pastoring. Spiritual Warfare: The Invisible Invasion (the publisher's choice for the title) became my first book and remained in a bestsellers category at Barnes & Noble for three years. Eventually a workbook was created to use together with Spiritual Warfare: The Invisible Invasion, and hundreds of churches on different continents taught the ideas presented in my 200-page book.

The decision to write that first book and to get published changed the course of my life. I discovered that I love writing and that I love getting paid to do it. I started writing any project I could get my hands on: editorials and opinion pieces, research material for newspapers, and, eventually, three more books, which also hit bestseller status.

What might surprise some people is to learn that during negotiations with Huntington House Publishers for Spiritual Warfare: The Invisible Invasion, the publisher required me to purchase 1000 copies of my book to offset the cost and production risk. I was told this was because I was a new author with no track record and mainstream publishers were increasingly unwilling to accept this type of risk alone. I've since learned that Huntington House was being honest. Frankly, the situation for new authors has gotten worse. Recently at the CBA convention we learned that even well-known "B" list authors are being cut now from major publishing houses in favor of the "A" list (million-copy sellers) almost exclusively. There are reasons why this is happening that I won't go into here, but this dynamic is why Defender Publishing Group was born. We believe great writers have important things to offer; they deserve to be read. At Defender, we have two significant publishing categories: 1) books we publish under standard royalty agreements; and 2) books we publish by partnering with the author.

Standard royalty publishing is what most authors are familiar with. The publisher decides to publish your book and bears all of the expenses involved. This type book is the riskiest for the publisher. Partnering agreements on the other hand are different in that the author agrees to purchase a certain number of their books at discount, which makes it less risky for the publisher. When Huntington House agreed to publish my first book, Spiritual Warfare: The Invisible Invasion only if I were willing to offset some of the production cost by purchasing 1000 copies of the book at discount from retail, I wasn't certain I would go through with it. In fact, I spent several months contacting other publishers. New Leaf Press became another possibility. They liked the book, and it actually received a green light from a couple important committees. Yet, before long it was rejected with the now familiar explanation: "We like the book, but you are an unknown. There's simply too much financial risk."

In the end I bit the bullet with Huntington House and agreed to purchase 1000 discounted copies of Spiritual Warfare: The Invisible Invasion. In my case, it was the smartest thing I ever did. I sold that first run of books at profit, bought and sold thousands more at profit, and today make my living writing. The truth is, I would not be where I am today had I not made that initial decision to invest in a writing career. Would this happen for you? There's no guarantee, but it's possible. For me the logic became simple. I love to write. I want to write. I NEED TO WRITE! And if purchasing 1000 books (nowadays I buy them by the tens of thousands) was my ticket to getting my foot in the door of a real publishing house with legitimate CBA and ABA distribution to retail outlets (not a POD or Vanity Publisher), I would do it.

Over the years I discovered many authors shared my experience. Their stories were so familiar. They had a passion to write, had labored over an important work, but couldn't get a full-service publisher to financially risk publishing their book. That's when the ultimate answer for many authors was born--the partnering program at Defender Publishing Group. We decided to publish some authors on a purely royalty based agreement but opened the door to authors that might not otherwise be published, through our partnering program. In either case, all of our authors have the same distribution as old-school publishing houses PLUS a revolutionary Marketing Plan that trumps the others. Those who have found a home at Defender include #1 bestselling authors who no longer work with the monopolistic publishing houses that may print but not promote every author. 

If you have written a great book and want to take the next step, Defender would be delighted to help you make your dream a reality. Send us a synopsis of your book (one page or less), an outline (two pages or less), and one or two sample chapters. Send them in a common font (Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana) and double-spaced in a Microsoft Word document (a .doc file). Then email your proposal to: tomhorn@defenderpublishing.com

We will take time to seriously consider your book and will promptly respond with an answer. We look forward to hearing from you. Maybe this will be the first step in changing the course of YOUR life, too.

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