Spectrum Press
Encyclopedia
Spectrum Press, of Chicago
, was an early electronic publishing house. Dan Agin was the editor/publisher. Beginning in the early 1990s, Spectrum published new and classic works on 3.5 inch floppy disks, shrink-wrapped in red paper packaging. They later moved to inserting floppy disks into CD cases for shipment.
Spectrum Press was a pioneering company of their day, one of the first publishers to offer works in electronic format, but did not survive society's move to the World Wide Web or to modern e-book publication. The company still existed as of 2001, but had ceased active publications.
House specialties of Spectrum included erotica and gay/lesbian fiction. The published several imprints:
Contemporary Fiction, Poetry, and Criticism
Artemis Books (lesbian fiction)
Sheridan Square Library (gay fiction)
Spectrum Classics
Nonfiction and Reference
Most of their business was done by mail order
. Before the world wide web
existed, they sent electronic catalogs to individuals and various online mail lists. (Some of these catalogs are still available in various web mail archives.)
The company described themselves in their catalog of February 1994:
In 1996, the editor's signature tag reported
Over 300 Etexts Delivered by Email; From Aristotelian Logic to Underground Erotica.
In their active years, they published several hundred new works by some 50 authors. A number of works originally published by Spectrum were later picked up by traditional (paper) publishers.
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, was an early electronic publishing house. Dan Agin was the editor/publisher. Beginning in the early 1990s, Spectrum published new and classic works on 3.5 inch floppy disks, shrink-wrapped in red paper packaging. They later moved to inserting floppy disks into CD cases for shipment.
Spectrum Press was a pioneering company of their day, one of the first publishers to offer works in electronic format, but did not survive society's move to the World Wide Web or to modern e-book publication. The company still existed as of 2001, but had ceased active publications.
House specialties of Spectrum included erotica and gay/lesbian fiction. The published several imprints:
Contemporary Fiction, Poetry, and Criticism
Artemis Books (lesbian fiction)
Sheridan Square Library (gay fiction)
Spectrum Classics
Nonfiction and Reference
Most of their business was done by mail order
Mail order
Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
. Before the world wide web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
existed, they sent electronic catalogs to individuals and various online mail lists. (Some of these catalogs are still available in various web mail archives.)
The company described themselves in their catalog of February 1994:
Spectrum Press is an e-text publishing house committed
to quality fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, classics of consequence,
outrageous literary entertainments, and all strong voices against
political and social injustice. We publish complete electronic texts
on floppy disks for both PC and Mac.
In 1996, the editor's signature tag reported
Over 300 Etexts Delivered by Email; From Aristotelian Logic to Underground Erotica.
In their active years, they published several hundred new works by some 50 authors. A number of works originally published by Spectrum were later picked up by traditional (paper) publishers.
External links
- Spectrum Press Catalog February 1994 update
- Lynn Lonidier Papers atGay and Lesbian Center, San Francisco History Center