iBooks: Our Story
ibooks, inc. was founded in New York in 1999 by Byron Preiss, who had long been creating illustrated books, graphic novels and interactive titles through Byron Preiss Visual Publications. 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, along with mystery, history, science and books for young readers, and in 2004 Publishers Weekly named iBooks America’s fastest-growing small publisher.
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. It launched a monthly graphic-novel line in 2003 and the Milk & Cookies Press children’s imprint in 2004. While Byron Preiss led the company, iBooks sold about five million copies, nearly two million of them science fiction.
Byron Preiss died in July 2005. In December 2006 J. Boylston & Company, Publishers acquired the iBooks imprint. iBooks® is a registered trademark of J. Boylston & Company, Publishers, which keeps the iBooks backlist in print in trade paperback, hardcover, ebook and audio and continues to publish new iBooks titles.