Where stories found readers.

The business began while I was working at Disney. At a Pirates of the Caribbean merchandise location, I noticed that the books on the shelves were mostly general pirate stories. There was little about the parks themselves or the people who had built and worked in them.

The first person I called was Tom Nabbe. He had started working for Walt Disney as a teenager, played Tom Sawyer on Tom Sawyer Island, and spent decades with the company. I told him plainly that I was new to publishing and still learning. He trusted me with the book anyway.

That first project became the basis for Theme Park Press, which published books about theme parks, themed entertainment, and the people behind them. As authors brought me projects outside that field, I created additional imprints rather than force every book under one name.

I selected projects, worked with authors, shaped the imprints, prepared manuscripts for publication, managed production, and placed the finished books into established sales channels. Authors generally led their own marketing, while the company concentrated on turning a manuscript into a professional, marketable book.

The model allowed us to publish unusual subjects that larger houses might have rejected as too narrow. Some of the best books came from authors who knew a small subject thoroughly and cared enough about it to find the readers who cared too.

The company became very efficient at moving books from submission to market, but it never developed an equally strong marketing operation. That limited the reach of some titles and the company's larger growth.

When my legal career began, I could no longer give both law and publishing the attention they required. I sold McLain Media rather than continue running it at half strength.