History
William Carey Library to William Carey Publishing
Founded in 1969, William Carey Library (WCL) celebrates nearly 50 years of ministry. In the late 1960s, the faculty at Fuller Seminary’s School of World Mission saw the need to start a publishing function, in order to make the school’s steady stream of theses available to a wider audience. They asked Ralph Winter to figure out how to do that.
Dr. Allen Swanson, one of Dr. Winter’s students, recalled: “One day he [Dr. Winter] came into class waving a thesis manuscript in hand (mine) and announced what a tragedy it is to leave such writings to collect dust in library archives, and thus was born “mini-publishing” and the William Carey Library….” As a result, William Carey Library played an important role in getting out into the hands of missionaries and missiologists the incredible research and new insights that the school was producing.
Before long, the whole Winter family was running a publishing house, which evolved into a major contributor to the global church growth and frontier mission movements. Over the last 48 years, WCL has published some 400 titles and sold over one million mission-related books. One quarter-million of those are through the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement program alone.
William Carey Publishing is the outgrowth of almost 50 years of publishing innovation on behalf of the Kingdom. Our premiere imprint – William Carey Library – was founded in 1969 and continues to shape and advance the missiological conversation in the world. Our newest imprint – William Carey Press, nicknamed the “The Press” – is forging ahead to create new opportunities for mission agencies to have critical resources published.
Today, as we approach the 50th anniversary we are adapting to the new publishing world we find ourselves in, starting with transitioning our name from William Carey Library Publishers to William Carey Publishing (WCP). Further changes are seen as all of our current books are accessible in various formats--paperbacks, ebooks, and soon audio books--and we continue to work to bring our historical collection to life in new formats as well.
WCP carries on the vision of its founder to “publish, at reasonable cost, the best in current thinking on world mission” and endeavors to shape and advance the missiological conversation in the world. We especially seek to assist the work of mission executives, the field missionary, mission-minded churches, and the student of world mission.
Ralph Winter once made the observation that WCP is not in the book publishing business, but in the information business. We seek to be at the forefront of disseminating the essential knowledge the global Church requires to finish the task of world evangelization.
William Carey Press - "The Press"
William Carey Press – “The Press” – is our new paid-publishing service for mission agencies. We know that many agencies have publishing needs, whether it is a special anniversary book for donors, training materials and manuals printed around the world, their founder’s biography, reprints, republications, or even monthly newsletters.
All of these publishing needs, and more, can be those that mission agencies outsource to The Press. That way, agencies can focus on the work of spreading the Good News and we can offer our expertise in the publishing world.
Functionally, as a large publisher we get better prices for printing and are generally more efficient than a typical in-house team. However, we are happy to work with your creative teams to produce the publication you are hoping for at the best possible price.
Because William Carey Publishing as a whole is committed to furthering the Kingdom first and foremost, we want to provide these services, through The Press, for less than any other publisher.
Email us at publishing@wclbooks.com to discuss projects and how we might help.
