Rick Christian has had a life-long passion for words and great writing. He is the founder and president of Alive Communications, the premiere literary agency for Christian and inspirational authors, with more than a dozen NY Times #1 bestsellers to his credit. He launched Alive Communications in Los Angeles in 1989 and moved operations to Colorado Springs in 1991. Books represented by Alive have sold more than 150 million copies, have also occupied the #1 slot on best-selling lists compiled by USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly, and been optioned by numerous independent producers and film studios including Columbia, Disney and Sony.
He is also the founder and president of Colorado Springs-based Bondfire Books, an e-publisher focused on kindling thought and action through Christian and inspirational content, while maximizing digital prospects for authors.
Christian’s efforts on behalf of top authors have been widely chronicled in leading newspapers and magazines, from the NY Times and USA Today to Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly and Publisher’s Weekly. His biography and record of achievement appear in Who’s Who in America.
Raised in San Diego and a 1977 graduate of Stanford University (communications and creative writing), he also studied at Capernwray Bible School in England and the University of Southern California where he pursued graduate work in professional writing. Christian launched his publishing career as a newspaper reporter and columnist, followed by a career switch to magazine publishing. He served as associate editor of Campus Life magazine, executive editor of The Saturday Evening Post, and then transitioned to executive leadership in book publishing. Along the way, he wrote several books himself, including Alive, The Woodland Hills Tragedy, A Gift of Life, and Silent Night, which was adapted for the television series “Sue Thomas F.B.Eye.” (Some titles have appeared under his author name of S. Rickly Christian)
It is as a literary agent that Christian became renowned, particularly for his entrepreneurial efforts behind such mega-sellers as the Left Behind series (66 million copies with millions more in 27 languages), Eugene Peterson’s The Message (15 million copies), Karen Kingsbury’s novels (20 million copies), Lisa Beamer’s post 9-11 Let’s Roll (1.5 million copies), and the Life Recovery Bible (2 million copies). He is also celebrated for his literary efforts on behalf of Billy Graham and his family, Brennan Manning, Emerson Eggerichs, and Rwanda President Paul Kagame, among others. Other Alive phenoms include Don Miller’s Blue Like Jazz (1 million copies), Ron Hall and Denver Moore’s Same Kind of Different as Me (1 million), and Heaven is for Real (6 million). Christian’s representation of high-profile properties, negotiation for major theatrical adaptations, and pioneering work to develop cross-over markets and leverage support across all formats and mediums, earned Christian and his Alive Communications team its second-to-none reputation as Agents of Change.
Christian also serves on the board of Tirzah International, a network of national movements encompassing over 150,000 women leaders worldwide, addressing issues of injustice affecting women and girls. He and his wife Debbie have a blended family of seven children and live on a ranch in Black Forest, outside of Colorado Springs. His interests include real estate development, winter sports, boating, mountain biking, fishing and hunting. He is an avid reader, travels broadly, and finds special challenge in the Wall Street Journal and NY Times crossword puzzles and hiking mountains over 14,000 feet.
Little Known Facts: Rick was a paper boy, yo-yo champion, Eagle Scout, and high school student body president. He has hunted cape buffalo in Africa, alligators in South America and bear in Colorado. An avid fly fisherman, he has also landed king salmon in Alaska and marlin in Cabo San Lucas.
