For Immediate Release
Contact: Laura Fillmore
978-546-7346
laura@obs-us.com
ABA Booth E4537

OBS: Leading the Online Publishing Industry Since 1989

ROCKPORT, MA (June 15, 1996) -- Open Book Systems (OBS) was there when it started and has a strong history of advancing the online publishing industry. Through consulting with publishers and implementing innovative ideas online, OBS takes credit for a startling number of industry "firsts" for many of the major publishing houses in the U.S. Now, as the Internet publishing focus moves from strictly marketing book products towards dynamic online publishing -- accessing and developing the ideas and information contained within books -- OBS again takes the lead.

Follow the history of online publishing by reviewing the OBS "Firsts":

• 1989 -- OBS's parent company, Editorial Inc., produces John Quarterman's The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide for Digital Press, widely acknowledged as the first book about the Internet.

• 1992 -- Editorial Inc. conceives of and produces The Internet Companion: A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking (Addison-Wesley), the first trade book about the Internet. Online BookStore (OBS) is launched with the release of the book's files onto the Internet.

• March 15, 1993 -- OBS with Software Tool and Die sponsors the first "Live Online" poetry reading on the Net, featuring National Book Award-winner Robert Coover, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet John Ashbery.

• March 1993 -- Voyager Expanded Book Version of The Internet Companion becomes first disk-based trade book to contain Internet Service Provider connectivity software linking the reader directly to the Internet.

• May 1993 -- OBS brings the first Internet connection to ABA with its Internet Start-Up Booth.

• September 1993 -- OBS publishes Stephen King's "Umney's Last Case," the first major trade author to publish on the Net, and conducts the first sale of Internet rights. The gopher "buy" option offering immediate credit card clearance is the first "publishing cash register" we know of on the Net.

• October 1993 -- OBS brings the first Internet connection to Frankfurt Book Fair.

• February 1994 -- OBS publishes the first "distributive" book for sale on the Net, Adrian Butash's Bless This Food (Delacorte Press) in HTML using the Mosaic browser.

• March 1994 -- OBS conducts the first "Virtual Book Signing" on the Net using IRC with Harry Maurer, published by Viking Penguin.

• May 1994 -- John Wiley publishes its first titles on the Net with OBS, and releases them at ABA.

• May 1994 -- Bernice Chesler's Bed & Breakfast in New England, 4th edition (Globe Pequot Press) becomes the first B&B book on the Web.

• September 30, 1994 -- McGraw-Hill publishes Paperless Publishing with OBS, becoming the first publisher to post the complete HTML files for a current copyright book on the Net. McGraw-Hill later affirms in Publishers Weekly that Internet publication online spurred print sales of the book.

• October 2, 1994 -- Floyd Kemske (Catbird Press) becomes the first novelist to publish the book-writing process on the Web, showing the evolution of his work from first manuscript through two hyperlinked revises, and into printed book. Human Resources, and its dynamic component, The Lidsky Files, pave the way for hyperfictions online.

• December 14, 1994 -- Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, becomes the first trade book to be published in multiple languages on the Net. Each time OBS introduces a new translation (German and then Portuguese in 1995) hits on the title increase, and hits continue to increase every month to date.

• February 1995 -- OBS introduces the first multilanguage publishing server (in four languages) we know of.

• June 1, 1995 -- OBS offers "Time Warner Quick Reads" for sale by download on the Internet -- a first for Time Warner Electronic Publishing.

• October 26, 1995 -- OBS creates the first "Open Book Review" for Robert McNamara's In Retrospect.

• November 1, 1995 -- OBS creates the first Internet Projections and online Concession Stand for Miramax Films, leading to three award-winning content-rich film sites for Miramax.

• March 17, 1996 -- Bernice Chesler's Bed and Breakfast in New England, 5th edition (Chronicle Books) becomes the first full-text, fully-searchable database B&B book on the Net, offering online currency conversion, weather reports, interactive maps, and email to 448 selected B&Bs.

• May 1996 -- Springhouse Corporation, the country's leading nursing publisher (subsidiary of Reed Elsevier) offers the first Continuing Education Credits online over the Internet through OBS's online testing and billing program. This is part of a growing and comprehensive site OBS is designing and producing for Springhouse.

OBS takes pride in putting its clients first. We work to integrate our publishing and internetworking skills with each publisher's existing business, to help our clients develop strong Internet publishing programs. In the fast-moving arena of Internet publishing, being first means getting the attention of Internet readers before your competitors do. OBS specializes in profitable solutions for doing just that.