The Word Forge was born in November, 2001. In the wake of the 9/11 tragedy, Mary Shafer realized life was too short to continue spending so much time doing things she wasn’t really passionate about anymore. So she quit her job as president of someone else’s ad agency and struck out on her own. She decided only to work on projects she believed in, for clients she genuinely liked.
It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s been a good dozen years. And she’s created some work she’s monumentally proud of, mostly for the noticeable results it has gotten for clients who trusted her with their marketing messages and campaigns. The whole time, it’s been about the value she hammers out for those clients day in and day out.
By 2005, Mary added a publishing division, Word Forge Books, to The Word Forge. She wanted to bring out several titles of her own, as well as offering custom publishing to her marketing and consulting clients looking for a unique way to establish credibility and visibility in their respective industries. By the following year, she was speaking regularly in public on the subjects of her books, and by 2010, was presenting on marketing and promotion topics for small and microbusinesses. In 2012, Mary formalized what she’d already been doing here and there, adding consulting for independent publishers, authors, and writers who wanted to become authors. She’s been speaking and presenting to writing and publishing conferences since 2008, bringing more than 20 years of experience and savvy to those seeking to enter the rapidly evolving book publishing field.
She’s looking forward to many more decades of doing what she loves for people who need and appreciate the value in the creativity and passion she brings to her craft.