Who Came First? {Astounding Advances in Electronic Publishing}, Part 3 by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Who Came First? {Astounding Advances in Electronic Publishing}, Part 3

by Karen S. Wiesner 

E-books and e-publishing have really advanced in the last three decades. When I first entered this arena in 1998, e-books were the ugly stepsister of "real books". Fast-forward thirty years, and it's a whole different world now than those early pioneering days in the industry. In the past two weeks, I posted the first sections of an article I wrote in 2003, when e-books and e-publishing still hadn't made much of an impact. Back then, universal acceptance of them always seemed out of reach. Reflecting on changes keeps history relevant. To that end, this week, I'm posting Part 2.

 

WHO CAME FIRST?

by Karen S. Wiesner

© 2003 as featured in ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING The Definitive Guide, 2003 Edition by Karen S. Wiesner, published by Hard Shell Word Factory OOP

 

Electronic Publishing Timeline

 

The following timeline will begin with the first known e-publisher and take us through three decades of electronic publishing history. While the public at large dates e-publishing as beginning in the late 1990s, the reality is much different and much, much more fascinating:

*mass market publisher

 

1971

Project Gutenberg began.

 

"1970s"

Bob Gunner starts his first publishing company, originally called Mind-Eye ePublishing, but became aware that another e-publisher using the name (Mind’s Eye Fiction, started by Ken Jenks).

 

1986

Serendipity Systems Started in 1986.

 

1987

Eastgate Systems, Inc. Founded in 1982; first hypertext fiction published in 1987.

SoftServ Began in December 1987. SoftServ is now defunct, but publisher, J. Neil Schulman began Pulpless.com in 1996.

 

1993

BiblioBytes Founded in January 1993.

 

1994

C&M Online Media/Boson Books Online since January 1994.

The Fiction Works Established in 1994.

Great American Publishing Society {GR.AM.P.S.} Founded in 1975; first fully-electronic book-on-CD came in 1994.

 

1995

Crowsnest Books Founded in 1995.

Peak Interactive Books, Incorporated Founded in 1995.

DiskUs Publishing Started as a desktop publishing company that sold works on disks; web presence started in early 1997 and they sold their first e-book in early 1998.

 

1996

Clocktower Books Offered e-books as a free promotional venture in May 1996; offered e-books for sale December 1999.

Alexandria Digital Literature Founded in July 1996.

New Concepts Publishing Founded in August 1996 and went online in October 1996.

Hard Shell Word Factory Started in November 1996; Mary Z. Wolf bought the company at the end of 1997.

*Fodor’s Travel Publications (a division of Random House, Inc. In 1996, Fodor’s was launched onto the World Wide Web with Fodors.com, a proprietary website offering up-to-date travel information in a unique interactive format.

Antelope Publishing Started in 1996.

Virtual Publications Launched in 1996.

 

1997

Nitelinks, Inc. Incorporated in June 1997.

Electron Press Founded in mid-November 1997 and went live in the fall of that year with its first books.

Denlinger’s Publishers Ltd. A traditional publishing company since 1926, their "Emerging Technologies Department" opened in 1997.

Disc-Us Books, Inc. Founded in 1997 and opened for business in November 1998.

*Thomas Nelson Inc. Began Electronic Publishing Division in CD-ROM format in 1997.

 

1998

Private Ice Publications Founded in February 1998.

Twilight Times Books Established May 1, 1998.

MountainView Publishing Company Founded in July 1998. Merged with Treble Heart Books in 2001.

LionHearted Publishing, Inc. Founded in 1994; website went up in 1996; started publishing titles digitally in mid-1998. By mid-2000 published all titles in both formats (paper and digital).

E-dition Started its operation in August 1998.

Awe-Struck E-Books, Inc. Began in November 1998.

GLB Publishers Founded in 1990; began e-publishing in 1998.

DLSIJ Press Established in 1998.

ebooksonthe.net Founded in 1998.

Adams-Blake Publishing Been publishing books since 1990 and been in the software business since 1998.

Sirius Publications^TM Founded in 1998.

Spilled Candy Books In business since June 1995; started published e-books in 1998.

Editio-Books Founded in 1998; Qvadis Corporation acquired Editio-Books in January 2000.

 

1999

Avid Press, LLC Opened for submissions in May 1999 from website; released first titles in October 1999.

Booklocker.com Founded in the spring of 1999; Angela Adair-Hoy purchased the company from the original owner in September 1999.

*Simon and Schuster Released Stephen King’s novel BAG OF BONES in both print and electronic formats in April 1999.

*Pocket Books, a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc. Announced July 19, 1999 it would release an e-book and print-on-demand edition of one of their titles prior to hardcover publication.

LTDBooks Opened for submissions in August 1999; for sales December 1999.

Renaissance E Books Went online in September 1999.

*Simon and Schuster September 15, 1999 marked the launch of a new publishing imprint called ibooks, which published simultaneously in print and online.

*Oxford University Press Announced in December 1999 that it would offer a selection of their books digitally over the internet through netLibrary (TM). netLibrary used its proprietary technologies to create and manage e-book versions of Oxford University Press academic and reference titles.

Jacobyte Books Been in the electronic publishing business since late 1999.

Book-On-Disc.Com Founded in 1999.

Athina Publishing Founded in 1999.

HyperTech Media, Inc. Founded and incorporated in 1995 as an educational software development; became an e-book publisher in 1999.

Lone Wolf Publications Founded in 1999.

SMC Publishing Began in 1999.

Wellness Institute, Inc./Selfhelpbooks.com The Wellness Institute, Inc. was founded in 1976; Selfhelpbooks.com started in 1999.

 

2000

E-Pub2000 Founded January 1, 2000.

London Circle Publishing Founded January 2000.

Intellectua.com, LLC Formed in January 2000.

Mushroom eBooks Founded in January 2000.

ElectricStory.com Fully incorporated in February 2000.

Atlantic Bridge Publishing Founded in February 2000.

*Harlequin Enterprises Limited On February 14, 2000, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, the world’s leading publisher of romance fiction, and Women.com Networks, the premier website for women, announced the launch of eHarlequin.com which features the "Interactive Novel," which encourages visitors to read one chapter of a romance novel and vote on which way the story should go. The author then writes the next chapter according to popular vote.

*Scribner and Philtrum Press (Stephen King’s press) and electronically published through Simon & Schuster Online Stephen King’s Riding the Bullet appeared exclusively as an e-book on March 14^th, 2000.

XC Publishing Started in May 2000.

Fictionwise, Inc. Founded in June 2000.

Southern Charm Press Founded in June 2000.

*Modern Library eBooks (a division of Random House) In July 2000, Random House proudly announced the establishment of Modern Library eBooks.

Electric eBook Publishing Started in July 2000.

*Penguin Putnam Inc. On August 8, 2000, Simon & Schuster announced the Pocket Books division launch of a brand new Star Trek series to be published exclusively in electronic format. On August 23, 2000, Simon & Schuster announced its first full season of original e-books, to be published beginning Fall 2000. The list, featuring titles from every Simon & Schuster book publishing division, would be complemented by an ever-growing selection of simultaneous electronic publications for regularly scheduled paper-and-ink titles, as well as continuous electronic updating of previously published books.

On August 22, 2000, Penguin Putnam Inc. and Lightning Source Inc. SM announced the creation of a strategic alliance. Under terms of the agreement, Lightning Source would help Penguin digitize its vast content offerings, helping ensure the secure delivery of its current and future e-book titles, and providing consumers with greater access to its frontlist and backlist titles.

Leaping Dog Press Opened its doors in the Fall of 2000.

*Holtzbrinck Publishers On August 3, 2000, Lightning Source Inc. announced an alliance with Holtzbrinck Publishers, the U.S. publishing group which includes St. Martin’s Press; Picador; Tor; Forge; Henry Holt; and Farrar, Straus & Giroux to become Holtzbrinck’s primary provider of a comprehensive suite of digital fulfillment services, including "on demand" printing and secure e-book delivery. In addition, Holtzbrinck’s worldwide publishers such as Pan Macmillan and Palgrave participated in this alliance.

*McGraw-Hill Primis Custom Publishing, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education On September 13, 2000, McGraw-Hill Primis Custom Publishing announced a new Primis Online tool that enables professors to design their own e-books from the largest digitized textbook database in the world.

*Penguin Putnam Inc. On November 15, 2000, Texterity, Inc., a leading provider of e-book and e-publishing services, and Penguin Putnam Inc., a leading U.S. trade book publisher, announced the signing of an e-book conversion agreement. Under the agreement, Penguin Putnam would convert existing author’s works from PDF format into e-book and XML formats using Texterity’s fully automated TextCafe service.

*Thomas Nelson, Inc. Launched a comprehensive e-book publishing program on November 15, 2000.

eKIDna eBooks {from The eKIDna Library} Began in late 2000.

Fairgo E-Books Formed in 2000 as a part of Half of Eight Pty. Ltd., a company founded in 1995.

Writer’s Exchange E-Publishing Founded in 2000.

Zander eBooks Founded in 2000.

Next week, I'll post the article's conclusion and wrap up my retrospective on how far this industry has come in only three decades. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog 

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor 

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/