Beyond Words

In the fall of 1983, Beyond Words Publishing was formed with the goal to produce the finest photographic coffee table books that had ever been published. We looked for photographers who had a singular passion for their subject matter and our first two books Molokai, An Island in Time and Within a Rainbowed Sea were printed in the summer of 1984. Both books received over 30 international awards including recognition as the finest photography books printed in the world. Our 40th president, Ronald Reagan, even gave one as a gift to the Emperor of Japan in 1986.

Harry Hoffman, then president of Walden Books, gave us our first purchase orders for 10,000 books of each title a year for ten years. Our first partner, Robert Goodman, stayed with the company for a year and helped teach us about the challenges of publishing.

Over the next two years, we diligently marketed our titles, loading up our books driving through Oregon and California selling them out of the trunk of our car. The first store we went into bought four copies and gave us a check. We were so excited to be paid that we asked for checks for every sale thereafter.

After many weeks on the road, at a bookstore in southern California, Chuck Morrell a sales representative for St. Martin’s Press, saw our books and encouraged the rest of his team to sell our books across the country.

In 1987, we published our first children’s book and our first book in the personal growth genre. Over the next few years, our books were distributed by Publisher’s Group West, who encouraged us to publish more books in these two categories. So we did. In 1990 we published Dr. John Gray’s first book: Men, Women and Relationships. Dr. Gray went on to expand a chapter from this book into Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, published by HarperCollins.