Who Came First? {Astounding Advances in Electronic
Publishing}, Part 1
by Karen S. Wiesner
Oh, we have come a long way, baby, when it comes to the leaps and bounds e-books and e-publishing have advanced in the last three decades. When I first entered this arena in 1998, e-books were the ugly stepsister of "real books". Traditionally published authors, mainstream publishers, and nearly every reader encountered didn't have a clue what electronic books were, let alone what to do with them. When physical copies of the books were introduced, floppy disks and then CDs complete with cover art, astounded and nearly always repelled those who frequented bookstores and book signings. The electronic reading devices were as alien as Star Trek technology, and very expensive, to the point where few could imagine such an investment just to read books. Even the compelling arguments that countless trees could be saved, eye strain could be drastically reduced, and an e-reader "suitcase" could hold thousands of books had little or no effect on the audiences e-published authors attempted to persuade to our cause.
Fast-forward thirty years. Printing paperbacks has now become an "on demand" practice and scarcer. Almost every reader I know enjoys and even prefers their books read on a phone or electronic device in a wide range of inexpensive models. Every publisher now offers a variety of electronic formats and huge strides have been made in making book files secure. Almost all newspapers and magazines have an electronic component--in fact, it's the only format most now offer. You can also check out e-books from libraries. Wow is it a whole different world now than those early pioneering days in the industry.
In late March 2025, while I was completing the "legacy" compilation of a comprehensive list of details about the 156 books I've had published in the timespan since my first book was released electronically, I came across an article I wrote in 2003 that became a chapter in my annually updated ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING The Definitive Guide, which, in its heyday was truly the most complete reference for non-subsidy e-publishing available in the industry. Compelled to relive such a pivotal part of my publishing history, I read it, and found myself even more astounded by all that'd come to pass. Mind you, in 2003, e-books and e-publishing still hadn't made much of an impact on the whole. Most of us clung to hope that someday the possibilities would just explode while a small voice inside whispered that we and our products would never see universal acceptance. For that reason, this article seemed even more amazing to me, almost like a prophecy about the future that always seemed out of reach at that time.
I believe looking back and reflecting on changes is an important part of keeping history relevant, so, for the next four weeks, I'm going to post this 2003 article I wrote. I took out the many, many links that were in it, since all/most of them were broken anyway. In fact, most of the publishers mentioned are defunct--so I took out most of the references to publishers who closed their doors already then and now. I also updated the spelling and grammar of some words that were written differently back then. Other than that, I'm posting the article in its entirety and intact, without revising any part of it. I think you'll marvel just like I did when I dragged this article of the ruins and saw that the world as we know it when it comes to e-books and e-publishing has been turned upside down in only three decades.
And, now, without further ado, here's Part 1 of that article.
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
Since
electronic publishing became the ultra-popular buzz word of the industry,
there’s been a lot of talk going around about who first came up with the idea
of e-publishing and who the first e-publisher was. We hear things like "It
was 199-; there was no such thing as e-books" and "We only see
futuristic things like e-books in episodes of Star Trek."
Mass
market publishers have been claiming they broke new ground with publishing
since Simon Schuster released Stephen King’s novel Bag of Bones in both
print and electronic formats (April 1999) and Pocket Books announced on July
19, 1999 that it would release an e-book and print-on-demand edition of one of
their titles prior to hardcover publication (KNOCKDOWN: The Harrowing
True Account of a Yacht Race Turned Deadly by Martin Dugard). This
"leap into the electronic future" was touted as a "first time
venture."
On
March 14, 2000, Simon & Schuster went one further and published Stephen
King’s novella Riding the Bullet in electronic-only format. It was said
of the venture: "This innovative publication strategy takes the e-book
from the realm of novelty and directly into the very mainstream of today’s
culture…" But was this a leap? Was it actually innovative or
fantasy-made-reality? Ironically, it was also Simon & Schuster that asked
authors for 15,000-40,000 word works for e-books and offered advances of $1000
(2.5 cents a word on the low end; 65 cents per word on the high end) in
exchange. An S&S spokesperson said of the deal, "We’re a traditional
publisher. We don’t have dot-com dollars to throw around."
Random
House established Modern Library e-Books, which published 100 works of classic
literature from the Modern Library backlist in electronic form, beginning July
2000. In September 2000, Random House claimed it "has just become the
first major trade publisher to announce publication of a complete editorial
list of original electronic books, commissioned expressly for this publishing
format." The first 20 e-books, both fiction and nonfiction, appeared in
January 200l under the new imprint, AtRandom, and were offered as trade
paperbacks as well as in digital format. Yet at least one mass market publisher
beat them to the punch as the first trade publisher to offer their editorial
list as original e-books. In 1997, Denlinger’s Publishers Ltd. produced
original titles in both electronic format and print-on-demand paperbacks from
their Emerging Technologies Department.
On
October 6, 2000, Thomas Nelson, Inc. announced they’d become "the first
Christian publisher to launch a comprehensive e-book publishing program."
However, MountainView Publishing Company had been publishing Christian books in
electronic format since July 1998.
The
media has accredited Stephen King with the (supposedly) never-before-attempted
venture of offering a book via installment chapters (a.k.a. serial), though
King himself claimed he was trying "out a concept so old it may seem
new." The Plant was experimentally self-published in e-format in
July 2000 by Stephen King, chapter by chapter (and remains at the time of this
writing unfinished), with readers paying a dollar for those chapters, on an
honor basis. The Plant brought in an astounding (by e-publishing
standards) net profit of $463,832.27. In the ’70s, Bob Gunner (currently the
owner of Cyber-Pulp Houston/USA ePublishing) became aware that another
e-publisher was using a name similar to his first e-publishing venture, Mind
Eye ePublishing. That company was Mind’s Eye Fiction owned by Ken Jenks.
According to Gunner, even back then, Mind’s Eye Fiction used a free-sample/buy-the-rest-if-you-like-it
system: "He would let them read a page or so, and then the reader would
decide if they wanted to read the rest of the story and pay for the key."
Mind’s Eye Fiction remains in business to this day, having been purchased by
Alexandria Digital Literature in November 1999. In the late 1980s, Bob Gunner
published his e-books as "Donationware"—if the reader enjoyed it,
they could send a dollar to the author. "I never received too many of
those dollars," Bob says. "We felt the writing was most important;
the money really did not matter at the time. We always believed the money would
come later." Suddenly Stephen King’s solo venture with The Plant in
2000—profit aside—seems very clichéd, doesn’t it?
Even
small press electronic publishers are vying for the "first"
title—first e-publisher, first 5 star review of an e-book, first bestselling e-book,
and on and on.
So
who’s right? Who’s confused? Who’s taking credit that isn’t due them? Who’s
quietly going about their business without ever realizing they’ve started a
revolution?
Next week we'll really
get into the meat of this article.
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/
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