Our History

iBooks and the Byron Preiss companies

Byron Preiss founded ibooks, inc. in New York in 1999. Through Byron Preiss Visual Publications he had long been creating illustrated books, graphic novels and interactive titles. With distribution by Simon & Schuster, iBooks grew to about 200 books a year. Its list included science fiction and fantasy from Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Roger Zelazny, as well as mystery, history, science and books for young readers. In 2003 it added a monthly graphic-novel line with Harlan Ellison, Richard Corben and Moebius.

iBooks was also an early ebook publisher. Its 2000 illustrated companion to the Sci Fi Channel’s Frank Herbert’s Dune came out as a book with a DVD and as an ebook at the same time. While Byron Preiss led the company, iBooks sold about five million copies, nearly two million of them science fiction.

After Byron Preiss died in July 2005 in East Hampton, New York, the company went through bankruptcy, and in 2006 the rights to the iBooks imprint were purchased out of the bankruptcy proceeding. Today J. Boylston & Company, Publishers controls the assets of all the Byron Preiss properties, including iBooks, Byron Preiss Visual Publications and ipicturebooks. iBooks® is a registered trademark of J. Boylston & Company, Publishers. The backlist is kept in print in trade paperback, hardcover, ebook and audio, and iBooks continues to publish new titles.

Browse iBooks · Browse Byron Preiss Visual Publications

ipicturebooks

ipicturebooks.com, one of the first homes for children’s ebooks, went live on February 8, 2001. That address lapsed during the bankruptcy; ipicturebooks is now at ipicturebooksllc.com. Read the ipicturebooks story, with screenshots of the original site and the books from that first list still in print.