On this July 4th, Higher Ground Books & Media is celebrating being an independent publisher in the United States of America. We are so grateful for those who have sacrificed their lives in order to protect our freedom to do so. As part of that celebration, we wanted to share a little bit of our history with you.
Rebecca Benston, the owner of Higher Ground Books & Media is an author whose books were previously published through Stonegarden Publishing. Back in 2013, the owner of Stonegarden announced that he would be closing his business and he returned all of the rights to her books back to her. At that point, she had about six books in her series and had started writing book number seven. That would have been a lot of work to simply throw away, so she decided to re-release the books by starting her own publishing company. Originally, Benston had intended to just release her own books and move on. But God had other plans!
A few friends had approached Benston about books that they wanted to publish and after some thought and a lot of prayer, she decided to take on a new mission. Books from Higher Ground was born in late 2013 and started with the re-release of the Rona Shively Stories series and two other titles, Overcomer by Forrest Henslee and A Path to Shalom by Steen Burke. Two very different types of ministry resource, but both pointing to an Almighty God! The tagline for Books from Higher Ground became, "We Love to Tell the Story!" and tell it, we did! In 2021, we now have 58 authors, over 125 titles, and a brand new imprint called Bulletproof Books!
At the end of 2014, Benston decided to expand the work that was being done by Books from Higher Ground and completely re-branded the company to be called Higher Ground Books & Media. The goal was to incorporate other types of media including, audio, video, and even art into what was being produced by her company. Higher Ground Books & Media currently has about 48 titles available on audio through Audible.com and several instructional videos available on YouTube. Though still working on the video side, the plan is still to incorporate more videos by the end of 2021.
Higher Ground Books & Media also offers a number of business writing services and workshops for authors through HGBM Services. The focus is to help facilitate the writing process and show authors how they can step up and speak out! HGBM's main goal is to help improve communication on all levels and to provide businesses and individuals with the tools they need to say what they need to say. It's all about not letting fear keep you from connecting with others.
Do you know where the inspiration for the name, "Higher Ground" comes from? Some have asked if we are affiliated with former president, Barack Obama. The answer is no. Obama's Higher Ground Productions was formed in 2018. We have been around since 2013. Actually, the inspiration for our name comes from a song by UB40 called Higher Ground. Although we love Stevie Wonder, he also was not our inspiration.
The UB40 song says:
Every hour of every day, I'm learning more
The more I learn, the less I know about before
The less I know the more I want to look around
Digging deep for clues on higher ground.
And this is what we're all about! With God as our focus, we, too are digging deep for those clues on higher ground. And we'll always be searching for truth, inspiration, wisdom, and peace. We are so happy that you have joined us on our journey and we hope you'll stick with us. More great stuff is on the way!
Happy 4th of July! God bless you!
Higher Ground lyrics by UB40, from the Promises and Lies album. (c)1993
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