Christian publishing veteran Larry Carpenter, who has held senior positions with several leading suppliers, is starting his own business to help would-be authors and artists.

Having stepped down as president of Standard Publishing earlier this month after less than two years in charge, Carpenter has founded Christian Book Services (CBS). The company will offer consulting help covering everything from content creation to printing, marketing and distribution.

"I want to be able to help people who have God-honoring products but do not have the knowledge or the wherewithal to get them out where they can do some good," Carpenter told Christian Retailing.

CBS is based in the Nashville area, to which Carpenter has returned from Cincinnati, where he joined Standard in 2008. Prior to that, Carpenter was a marketing vice president at Thomas Nelson and formerly president of Spring Arbor. He also founded FaithWorks, a full-service distributor, which he sold to STL Distribution North America.

"I saw all these folks that were maybe not the greatest writers in the world, but who were earnest about what they were doing, and somebody out there could benefit from it," said Carpenter. "Even those with large ministries can find it difficult. Authors of all different levels have been needing help getting their products into distribution."

A member of Christian Retailing's editorial advisory board, Carpenter, 54, said that his resignation from Standard was for personal reasons unrelated to business. The company is currently looking for a successor.

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