Publishing Truth
DeKa Press was born when Katharine Matchette found a retail market for her book, Libby’s Choice, but no publisher.
With a marketing agreement in hand, she and her husband, Dennis, pooled their talents to publish the book themselves.
As a longtime printer, Dennis had accumulated his own small "hobby" shop, giving greatly reduced production costs. Katharine added her experience in writing, editing, and typesetting to the mix.
Then, as a former teacher in public and Christian schools, Katharine recognized they had much to offer homeschoolers and Christian schools, and DeKa Press began to grow. The second publishing venture was Walk Safe Through the Jungle (originally Herald Press, 1974), which they reissued in a small run targeted to Christian school libraries and homeschoolers. The third book, Oh Suzannah, also historical fiction, came out in late August 1998. The newest book is Discovering Oregon, an Oregon history workbook for Christian schools. There is also a new study guide with suggested learning activities for Oh Suzannah.
As a developing small press, DeKa hopes eventually to add outside authors-and to develop inexpensive supplementary materials to integrate missions with social studies.