Welcome to Rising River Media, a non-profit Christian self-publishing and media company based in Spokane Valley, Washington. My name is Maurice Smith. I’m the Executive Director of Rising River Media and the author of several books on themes of Christian ministry and life. We've been involved in self-publishing for nearly 30 years. When we published our first book, When the Fire Fell: The Great Welsh Revival of 1904, self-publishing was almost non-existent, and spellcheck was something called a dictionary. When it came to self-publishing, we were very much on our own to figure it out for ourselves. It was sink or swim, so we decided to swim. Since then, we've published eighteen books. Today, self-publishing companies have sprouted up like mushrooms and their sponsored ads show up in your Facebook feed. Click on one, and the gnomes at Facebook are making sure you see them all.
I’m also the Executive Producer of My Road Leads Home a documentary series on homelessness. We began adding documentary filmmaking as our media component in 2019 and have produced 7 full-length documentaries and several documentary short films on homelessness. Rising River Media became a Community Producer for Community-Minded Television in Spokane, a local access cable channel that airs all of our documentaries (Comcast-Xfinity Channel 14). They're also available on our YouTube channel: My Road Leads Home
Both our self-publishing work and our documentary film work have been grounded in the idea of making a difference in the lives of others, and for the kingdom of God. Our motivation has always been the same. We don't do it to make money. We do it to make a difference for others and for the kingdom of God. In the process, our goal is to empower the writers we work with to be more effective in their writing and in their personal discipleship by helping them tell stories that matter, stories rooted in faith, forged in the margins, and fired by the Spirit. Whether through the written word or the lens of a camera, our mission is clear: to speak truth with love, stir hearts toward action, and point people to the transforming grace of God.
If you're an aspiring self-published author, let me invite you to join us on this journey we call self-publishing. Take a few minutes to watch the video on this page, Pulling Back The Curtain On Self-Publishing, that will tell you more about who we are and what we do, and how we ca help you on your self-publishing journey.