Zerubbabel Press: Republishing Norman Grubb’s Books
by Sanda Cooper

Over the last 15 years, Zerubbabel Press has republished several of Norman Grubb’s books. This has been a great responsibility and privilege, and we want to share the story of how it came about with our readers.

Several of us had been discussing the possibility of republishing Norman Grubb’s books for some years. Our lives have been radically transformed by the biblical truths he taught, and we strongly believed that his work should be made available to a new generation of Christian readers. Supplies of his more recent books were dwindling, and his out-of print books had all but disappeared. Besides, many of our own copies were in tatters, our God Unlimiteds held together by rubber bands, and our Who Am I?s dog-eared, falling permanently open at a well-visited and heavily underlined chapter. When about twenty of us moved to Boone in 1992 to begin our Total Living Center, we finally had a central location from which to publish The Intercessor, the Z-news, and, hopefully, Norman’s books.

We knew nothing about publishing books and needed help determining who currently held the publishing rights on the books, so we hired a copyright attorney. Thus began a labyrinthine search for who owned which titles, for how long, and whether the rights could be purchased. No one we contacted through the attorney seemed clear on the facts, and there were even discrepancies over the precise titles. Eventually we discovered that Norman’s original British publisher in England, Lutterworth Press, controlled the bulk of the rights, and that the publisher was eager to see the main body of Norman’s work reprinted. In addition, we learned that there were other individuals and groups also interested in reprinting one or more of the books, and we had no idea how negotiations might be progressing with them, or whether there was any way we might work together.

Finally, in October 1995, after almost nine months of correspondence between our attorney and Lutterworth Press, Scott Prewitt, Page Prewitt and I made an appointment to meet with Adrian Brink, the managing director, in Cambridge, England.

We found Lutterworth Press on a quiet street in Cambridge–an inauspicious narrow building with a red door and a little speaker box. We pushed a buzzer and a voice with a beautiful British accent answered. We stated our business, the door unlocked, and we stepped in and climbed a narrow, steep staircase that opened out to a large room bustling with people working at desks. And there stood the man we had come so far to see, Adrian Brink. We found him to be extremely charming and personable, looking like a professor at the
 
venerable university blocks away. But more importantly, we learned he was extremely committed to making certain that any reprint of Norman’s work would be professional and true to the original books. One of his main concerns was that the text of the books not be altered. We emphatically concurred, emphasizing that we were dedicated to preserving Norman’s writing and felt as protective as he did. We wanted to give the books a fresh, updated look, but with nothing changed except obvious typos and spelling mistakes. We also indicated that we were eager to cooper-ate with anyone else interested in making Norman’s work available once again.

Perhaps a deciding factor in Lutterworth’s later decision to sell the publishing rights to Zerubbabel Press was our initial commitment to reprint five of Norman’s books. Those of us who have "digested" his writings through the years know that in his earlier work he gives a fuller and more expanded treatment of some issues that are then distilled to a paragraph or two in his later books. Therefore it seemed necessary to reprint key books from his thirty some years of writing to give readers a thorough presentation of Norman’s unique biblical insight. The books we selected were: Who Am I?, The Law of Faith, Yes I Am, God Unlimited, and Once Caught, No Escape.
 
Having negotiated and signed the contract, we were faced with learning the actual process of book publishing. Although we were publishing The Intercessor and Z-news, as well as several short pamphlets, we were novices at full-length books. We decided to start with Who Am I?. First, we enlisted the aid of a Christian publishing firm (who eventually did the printing) a computer expert (who helped us through the difficulties of fairly sophisticated software), and a local printer (who had the expertise and technical capacity to duplicate our cover art). We designed a whole new look for the books, from font, to page size, to the actual spacing of the text–all in an effort to make the books more readable. Next, we decided on the cover. Our in-house artist, Steven Prewitt, enlarged actual letters from Norman’s typewritten correspondence to spell the title, placed the letters against parchment, and chose a color close to the original book. He also designed our Zerubbabel Press logo, which identifies us to the Christian publishing world.

The publishing team proofread and re-proofread; then the Boone fellowship proofed in small groups. And so we forged ahead, one stage after the next, trusting that God in us was able "to will and to do of His good pleasure"–
although novices in this publishing adventure. Above all, we trusted that the outcome would be worthy of the author whose understanding of the Scripture had so revolutionized our lives and the lives of many others.

At long last, after multiple conversations with our printer, we sent off our camera-ready pages for Who Am I? and waited. Finally, we received word that the first book, Who Am I?, was on its way to Boone. We were thrilled!
What a moment it was to hold that first copy and remember the labor of love that had been poured into it.

Who Am I? was followed by The Law of Faith and Yes, I Am, God Unlimited and Norman’s autobiography, Once Caught, No Escape. After this first group of five, we began on a second set, and to date have reprinted The Spontaneous You and The Liberating Secret, with The Deep Things of God well under way. We also joined forces with Lutterworth Press to co-publish The Intercession of Rees Howells, by Doris Ruscoe, which had been out of print for some time. Next we plan to reprint some of Norman’s works which are less known, but rich in insight and personal detail.

Printing Norman’s books has been a great achievement–but not only did we want them to be available, we wanted them in people’s hands! With the wonders of modern day technology, in the form of the Internet, we have been able to make these books available to hundreds of people all over the world. Our Zerubbabel Web site (www.zerubbabel.org) has been a great place to display and sell our books to a massive audience otherwise unreachable. Another fabulous tool has been Amazon (www.amazon.com). 35% of our book sales are through Amazon and Barnes & Noble online. We are so grateful for this new form of distribution and will continue to pursue other such methods in making the work of this remarkable man of God available around the world.

We are grateful to our readers for their interest and support throughout the process. Now Christians for generations to come can experience Norman Grubb’s invaluable understanding of our union with Christ.