Marcher Lord Press

Marcher Lord Press is no longer just a twinkle in my eye.

On October 1, 2007, www.MarcherLordPress.com went live.

And on October 1, 2008, the publishing company itself went live!

Marcher Lord Press instantly becomes the premier publisher of Christian speculative fiction.

Go to the Marcher Lord Press store to check out the amazing original fiction released by this one-of-a-kind Christian publishing company.

If you're a fan of WhereTheMapEnds then I know you'll be a fan of Marcher Lord Press. Thank you for your support and here's to a bright future of a publishing company dedicated to getting Christian speculative fiction into the hands of the fans who love it.  

There is in the world of Christian fiction publishing an unserved niche. 

Many thousands of Christian readers love what is called speculative fiction. Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing science fiction, fantasy, time travel, supernatural thrillers, spiritual warfare, alternate history, chillers, end times fiction, and more. Or, as I like to summarize it, "anything weird."

Though these legions of readers desire this kind of fiction, Christian publishing companies are not producing it for them. In my 13+ years in the Christian publishing industry (as a novelist and an editor) I have seen that Christian houses shy away from, well, anything weird. There are exceptions, such as the Left Behind novels, but for the most part, speculative fiction finds no welcome in the Christian publishing marketplace.

Yet there are many talented novelists writing Christian speculative fiction. I know many of them personally and have created the largest roundup of existing Christian speculative fiction on the Web at www.WhereTheMapEnds.com, one of my sites.

And so there is a gap. We have the readers who want Christian speculative fiction and the novelists writing it—but no publisher is working to bring these two groups together.

That is what Marcher Lord Press will do.

What Is a Marcher Lord?

In medieval times a marcher lord was a knight who was given lands on the borders of the kingdom. These knights were charged with patrolling and defending these wildlands, the marches, and thus protecting the heartland. Marcher lords were both the first line of defense and the secure bastions from which civilization could expand.

God willing, Marcher Lord Press will be a keep on the borderlands, a base from which Christian publishing can begin to settle the untamed frontier of speculative publishing.

You know, the kind of publishing that lies beyond where the map ends.

Marcher Lord Is Not a Vanity Press

In the minds of some, POD has come to be synonymous with self-publishing, subsidy publishing, or vanity publishing. Sometimes that association is true, but it will not be so with Marcher Lord Press.

POD will be the technology I use. It will enable me to produce short print runs or even one-offs of the titles Marcher Lord Press releases.

But whereas with subsidy publishing an author can usually get just about anything published (for a fee), with Marcher Lord Press the author will not pay anything and the books that get published will be only the ones I approve. Probably only a handful a year, like maybe 6. Six of the finest Christian speculative fiction titles I can find.

In most respects besides the fact that we'll use POD technology instead of traditional printing presses, Marcher Lord Press will be a "regular" publishing company.