Open Book Systems

Open Book Systems

Laura Fillmore, a literary agent who ran an editorial services company called Editorial, Inc., started working with a number of publishers to help them understand online publishing.

In December, 1992, as agent for Tracy LeQuay's "Internet Companion" (Addison Wesley), she posts Chapter One on the Internet as ASCII text.

In September 1993, she acquires "first Internet rights" to a Stephen King novel and begins to distribute it via gopher.

OBS Timeline -- a varied set of online publishing projects.

She set up the Online Book Store to work with publishers to make available electronic texts. ("books online = files online")

"...we'd start the Online BookStore (OBS), offering digitized text, audio, and voice files to anyone with a PC, Mac, or larger machine capable of Internet access. We'd keep the prices affordable, say $5 per hour or $5 per download, and offer authors and electronic rights holders royalties for their works, a first on the Internet, which until this point enjoyed a culture of free and equal access to all resources." (Fillmore, "Online Publishing: Threat or Menace?")

She was unable to produce any volume of sales.

OBS evolved from a "products-based" online business to a "process-based" online business. Unable to sell books, she began producing sites and running services for other companies.