Author Founds Her Own Press

Inspirational Author Founds Her Own Press
By Karen Angel
Star Staff Writer

Seeking more creative and financial control over her work, Betty J. Eadie, a best-selling inspirational writer, has formed her own press, Onjinjinkta Publishing. "It seemed like the obvious next step to getting my books out and getting them out the way I wanted them," Ms. Eadie said. "Dealing with publishers isn't always so easy, and then they end up owning your book. This is my life's work, and to be in control of that is wonderful." Ms. Eadie's third book, "The Ripple Effect: Our Harvest," is due out in October, with a first printing of 50,000 copies.

But the house expects to go back to press several times based on the performance of Ms. Eadie's previous two books, which have sold more that seven million copies combined. Her first book, a near-death account titled, "Embraced By The Light," was published by Gold Leaf Press, while the second book, "The Awakening Heart: My continuing Journey to Love," was published by Pocket Books; it reprises the near-death theme that she also sustains through her third book.

Onjinjinkta, which is based in Seattle, also plans to publish books by other inspirational authors, issuing four to six titles a season. (Onjinjinkta means "rose in bloom" in the language of Ms. Eadie's Lakota Sioux mother.)

Ms. Eadie said she had been offered her own imprint by several publishing houses, the type of arrangement recently accepted by the author Sarah Ban Breathnach, who will run Simple Abundance Press at Warner Books. But Ms. Eadie wanted still more autonomy that an imprint would have afforded.

"Even with your own imprint, you're working within their time frame," she said. "The work I'm doing requires my own time frame." In 1995, Onjinjinkta Enterprises, which Ms. Eadie started three years before, bought the rights to the hard-cover version of "Embraced" from Gold Leaf Press, and plans to release a new edition around the year 2000.

The success of feel-good books like the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series, which has sold 30 million copies shows that the inspirational market holds promise. But Ms. Eadie's faith in the market comes less from figures, she said, than from "the knowledge I received during my near-death experience."