Publishing for
the long term.

01Give the team a clear direction

Key ideaMake the purpose specific enough to guide decisions across the team.

The first responsibility is clarity. People need to understand why the publisher exists, how it intends to work and what it is trying to produce. A mission statement helps only when it shapes decisions that the team can recognise in its daily work.

Alex uses the familiar why, how and what framework to show what this means at Verbum. Its purpose is to honour God and serve the church by helping people understand the Bible and the gospel, come to know Jesus, love and treasure him, and follow him. Its approach gives deliberate attention to truth and beauty. For Alex, these belong together because God is both true and beautiful. The content and the way it is presented should reflect that conviction.

The concrete goal in the presentation is a programme of roughly 35 excellent books a year, in print and digital formats. That figure describes an intended pace, rather than a rule for Christian publishing or a claim about completed output. Its value lies in making the ambition specific enough to discuss. What would excellence at that pace require from the people doing the work?

Clarity also needs to reach individual departments. Editorial staff, designers and those making books known carry different responsibilities. Each needs to understand how the shared purpose applies to its own choices. Giving those teams ownership of the discussion helps the mission become something they use, rather than a phrase handed down from the top.

Alex recommends returning to this work periodically. A team can compare how it sees its publishing with how readers and partners experience it, then decide where to improve. The slides include material from Verbum’s own brand discussions. The useful lesson is the practice of asking those questions together. A settled purpose can guide changing priorities, and a clear identity can help the right collaborators recognise where they might contribute.

02Invest in the people who do the work

Key ideaDo not let tools take the attention people need. Invest more in the team and its culture.

A clear vision still needs people capable of carrying it out. Alex’s second reflection begins with identifying the roles the ministry actually needs, then finding people who can do that work well. The founder does not need to be the strongest editor, designer or marketer in the room.

He encourages leaders to look for people whose abilities exceed their own in the relevant area. He contrasts this with a founder who considers himself best at everything and delegates only packages of tasks for others to perform his way. Instead, identify what the organisation needs, find someone who can do it better and, where necessary, invest in training. That can include encouraging a colleague to learn from people outside the organisation.

Alex places character ahead of competence without treating willingness as a substitute for skill. Competence can be developed more readily than character. Connection to a local church and pastoral references help the team understand whom it is inviting to work alongside it. He describes the aim as “humble experts”: people who know their craft, listen to others and use their expertise to serve rather than dismiss a colleague.

This is also where he makes a joke about Smartcat. The slide puts a bespectacled cat reading a book beside real editors and asks, “Who would you choose?” Verbum uses both. Alex appreciates the computer-assisted translation tool’s glossaries and visibility into the work, while saying that, in his experience, it has also overpromised. But his answer is not simply to keep both: he would choose the people. He is concerned that publishers talk far more about the tool than about the people using it.

His warning is not to forget those people while chasing the latest tools, agents and efficiencies. A young, under-resourced publisher can spend its energy on technology and neglect the team that shares its purpose. Tools will change; people are made in God’s image, and this is ministry for people by people. Alex makes his priority concrete: for every hour invested in AI or a tool, invest two in people. That is his call to give people more attention, not a measured productivity formula.

He describes monthly calls with the editorial team to develop skills, ask how people are doing and check in on their projects. Several work with Verbum as contractors rather than employees; investment in people extends to them too. In the later discussion, he distinguishes theological editing from linguistic editing, noting that non-Christian specialists also do linguistic work. The point is to build up the people and culture, not assume that a useful tool replaces either.

For a remote organisation, Alex says this needs deliberate effort. He describes regular online contact, prayer meetings twice a week and bringing employees together in person twice a year. Those commitments cost money and time, but give colleagues opportunities to be together, laugh together and build relationships beyond the next deadline.

Verbum’s culture is described through humble expertise, excellence, boldness, spiritual mindedness and dependence on God. Alex wants those convictions to affect how the team discusses a weak result, attempts unfamiliar work and responds when it does not know what to do. This is not primarily a business driven by performance indicators: it is a spiritual endeavour. Prayer, including stopping to ask for help when a project is difficult, should make that dependence visible.

The point behind the Smartcat joke

Don’t forget the people.

The tool has its place

“We use both.”

Alex values Smartcat’s glossaries and visibility into the work.

The people need more of our attention

Keep investing in them.

Develop their skills. Ask how they’re doing. Stay involved in their work. Build a culture together.

03Choose a model the work can sustain

Key ideaChoose the activities and pace your people and resources can support.

The third reflection brings the mission into contact with the market. Publishers need an honest view of their costs, likely readership and sources of support. Good intentions do not tell a team how many copies it needs to sell or how much money a particular project will require.

Alex describes the difficulty of publishing for a relatively small audience in a market with high production costs. His response is to examine the numbers rather than leave the problem as a general impression. Which projects might cover their costs? Which depend on financial support? What does that mean for the programme the team can responsibly undertake?

That examination reaches beyond the printing bill. A book passes through acquisition, editing, design, production and the work of reaching readers. Warehousing and distribution need resources too. The decision about what to do within the organisation should reflect its purpose and the capabilities of its people.

In Verbum’s case, Alex describes a deliberate focus on editorial and creative work. Remote working was a choice to invest in people rather than buildings. Partners carry the business-to-business warehousing and distribution, while Verbum retains small warehouses for its direct-to-customer work. Giving work to a partner can reduce the margin retained on a sale, but also release attention and investment for what the publisher has chosen to do particularly well. Alex does not prescribe the same arrangement for every publisher.

In the discussion, he adds that reach matters more to Verbum than keeping the largest possible margin. He wants readers to find its books wherever they normally buy books, using existing retail and logistics networks. He also leaves open the possibility of a different logistics arrangement in the future, if the right people and capabilities are in place. These are intentional choices, not permanent rules.

The intended pace of publishing needs the same scrutiny. Alex recounts reconsidering a programme that had become too large for the team to give each book the enthusiasm and care it wanted to offer. Reducing the programme takes time because projects are already in motion. The target of roughly 35 books is part of that adjustment, not evidence that the transition was already complete when he spoke.

Alex wants the team, not only its leaders, to understand these economics. Working through a book’s costs and likely sales together makes the constraints and need for partial funding concrete. The question is what the team can do faithfully and well, with a model it understands and a willingness to adjust the volume and pace.

04Build a community of trust

Key ideaServe readers consistently and build relationships with other publishers.

Books reach people through relationships as well as distribution. Alex’s fourth reflection asks publishers to consider the trust behind those relationships. Readers give their time and attention to work they believe will help them. That confidence grows through repeated experiences of receiving something worthwhile.

This changes the way a publisher communicates. A relationship that consists only of requests to buy is thin. Sharing useful material, helping people understand an issue and directing them toward an appropriate resource can serve readers before any purchase takes place. Consistency matters because trust develops over time.

Alex encourages publishers to think about audiences in circles. Some people already know the ministry and are closely connected to it. Others are further away and may encounter it through a church, an event or a partner. Those relationships differ. Recognising the differences helps a team consider where a meaningful next connection could come from, without treating everyone as an interchangeable potential buyer.

He gives in-person events an indispensable place in a digital environment: videos and bots do not replace meeting people and building trust together. A book launch, conference or shared event should bless participants, not primarily promote the publisher’s products. Authors, helpful resources and book giveaways can support that purpose. Events can reflect something of the fellowship, teaching and love of church life, but Alex is careful not to call them churches.

Community also includes other publishers. Alex describes helping establish the TELOS group: a network whose leaders gather annually to encourage one another, give updates and pray, with other conversations between meetings. They do not agree on everything, but share enough conviction to build friendships. He also organised a call about AI tools, guidelines and theological frameworks. His scepticism about misplaced attention does not mean refusing to learn about technology together.

The invitation is to examine the relationships already within reach. A useful conversation with another publisher may reveal shared concerns, complementary strengths or an opportunity neither team could pursue alone. Building those connections takes effort, but it can replace isolation with a community that helps its members continue.

05Let the church’s needs shape the catalogue

Key ideaLet the needs of the church guide the programme, including the development of local authors.

The fifth reflection returns to the books themselves. A catalogue should serve the church rather than become a collection of the publisher’s favourite subjects. Conviction gives the work direction, but choosing titles also requires listening to the needs of the people the books are intended to help.

Alex asks what is most important, what is missing and what is urgently needed. The team’s own involvement in local churches informs those questions. Committees for different categories also involve pastors and mothers, bringing relevant experience to theology, Bible study and children’s books. The aim is to publish work genuinely helpful to the church, rather than choose titles around one person’s favourite subjects.

Funding creates another important pressure. Support can make valuable books possible, especially in a small language market. Yet available funding can gradually become the main reason a publisher chooses a title. Alex warns against allowing a donor’s priorities to determine the whole portfolio.

The healthier relationship is with supporters who understand and trust the publisher’s purpose and judgment, rather than require it to carry out their own programme. Alex says Verbum has sometimes declined good books and funding it needed because the fit was not right. He encourages publishers to look for local churches, individuals and businesspeople who believe in the work. He presents this as a continuing struggle, not a tension Verbum has already solved.

Developing local authors belongs in the same conversation. Translation remains valuable and can be a more accessible way to build a programme. Alex nevertheless urges publishers to invest in writers who can serve their own language and context. The easier route for the next book may not be enough to develop the authors a community will need in the future.

A coherent catalogue therefore requires continuing attention. The team needs to look at the subjects it is covering, the people it is serving and the voices it is helping to develop. The finished list of books should bear a recognisable relationship to the mission that introduced them.

06Keep faithfulness ahead of speed

Key ideaEvaluate the way the work is done as carefully as the amount produced.

Alex closes with a reflection on patience. Publishers can feel constant pressure to move faster, accept another project or use a new tool to increase output. Some improvements genuinely help. The number of things produced, however, cannot by itself establish whether a ministry is serving well.

For Christian publishing, he places faithfulness at the centre of that assessment. Greater efficiency is not automatically greater godliness. If efficiency causes a publisher to compromise on building its team, culture and trust, Alex says it has fallen into the technology trap he warned about. The issue is what the pursuit of speed displaces, not whether a tool can make a task faster.

He also asks a disarming question: is this publisher still needed? Christ’s promise that the gates of hell will not prevail applies to the church, not to Verbum. Its leaders need the humility to consider whether circumstances have changed, whether to partner or combine with others, or whether its strategy should take a different direction.

That question does not cancel the need for persistence. It helps distinguish patient service from defending an institution simply because it already exists. Alex connects the work with dependence on God and with the patience urged in 2 Timothy 4:1–2. Christian ministry calls for people who can keep teaching and serving through seasons when visible results arrive slowly.

Alex draws on a point from Collin Hansen’s talk on AI: the product matters, but so does the process. He asks whether that process reflects a patient and spiritually minded endeavour. Tools and shortcuts must not undermine the patience the work requires. His own sense of too much opportunity and too little capacity makes this a reminder to himself as well as to his listeners.

The closing encouragement is to continue with a realistic sense of both the difficulty and the worth of the task. The purpose is to serve Christ and his church. That gives a publisher a reason to work carefully, to make necessary changes and to resist treating speed as its highest measure.