- Spectrum Press
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 inchfloppy 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 ReferenceMost of their business was done by
mail order . Before theworld 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:
Spectrum Press is an e-text publishing house committedto quality fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, classics of consequence,outrageous literary entertainments, and all strong voices againstpolitical and social injustice. We publish complete electronic textson floppy disks for both PC and Mac. [Spectrum Press Catalog]
In 1996, the editor's signature tag reported"Over 300 Etexts Delivered by Email; From Aristotelian Logic to Underground Erotica" [Archived Letter at American.EDU]
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.
References
Spectrum Press Catalog [http://www.nfbnet.org/files/catalogs/SPECTRUM.TXT February 1994 update]
Archived Letter at American.EDU [http://www3.wcl.american.edu/cni/9609/10355.html]
Lynn Lonidier Papers at [http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/librarylocations/main/glc/pdf/Lynn_Lonidier.pdf Gay and Lesbian Center, San Francisco History Center]
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