Peachpit

History

Peachpit Press was founded in 1986 by Ted Nace and Michael Gardner, and the two co-authored the company's first book, LaserJet Unlimited. Gardner served on the board of the company from 1986 to 1994 but did not take an active role in the company. Nace and Gardner named the company Peachpit because at the time, Nace and several of his friends were "living and working in a peach colored house in Berkeley that was such a dump it was considered a 'pit.'" Computer writer Elaine Weinmann described how Nace let authors typeset and illustrate their own books and described his publishing approach as user-friendly and innovative. The company grew in size and sales, and had a publishing orientation towards books relating to Apple computers, and was described as a leader in books about digital graphics. Nace served as publisher from 1986 until 1996, when Nancy Aldrich-Ruenzel assumed the publisher position. In 1994, Nace sold Peachpit Press to London-based media conglomerate Pearson PLC. Peachpit continued to operate out of Berkeley until a move to San Francisco in 2012.

Although known as a Mac publisher Peachpit started out publishing Windows related books. Its first Macintosh books were The Little Mac Book and The Mac is not a typewriter, both by writer Robin Williams. In 1992, Peachpit purchased the Macintosh Bible series from Arthur Naiman's Goldstein and Blair (aptly named after characters in the George Orwell novel 1984). Peachpit became popular with the Mac community via its strong outreach and support of user groups. In 1998, when Apple user share was down to 4% of the computer user market and Power Computing was making Mac clones, Peachpit was still publishing a large portion of its books in the Mac space. Peachpit’s popularity with Mac users grew even stronger with its Visual QuickStart Guides.

Notable authors

Some notable Peachpit authors include: David Blatner, Thom Hartmann, Deke McClelland, Ted Nace, Steve Roth, Scott Kelby, Robin Williams, Don Rittner, Joe McNally, Larry Magid, Steve Krug, Jeffrey Zeldman, Jakob Nielsen, Bruce Schneier, Fred Davis, Seth Godin, Gary Wolf, Lynda Weinman, Jeff Tapper, Ben Forta and Maria Langer.

Publications

Peachpit’s publishing history includes:

Zap!: How Your Computer Can Hurt You - and What You Can Do About It by Don Sellers
Zap! is considered the first book written on computer safety. In order to make sure this book reached the hands of the people who needed it most (mainly office workers), Peachpit gave away over 75,000 copies to companies and corporations who promised to provide it to their employees.

Kid’s Web Kit by Lisa Lopuck
When the web first began gaining popularity, adults were not the only ones browsing — children were surfing too. Lisa Lopuck, who taught multimedia and Web design at San Francisco State University, wanted to help kids shape the future of the Web and wrote the first Web design book for kids.

Ecolinking: Everyone's Guide to Online Environmental Information by Don Rittner
Ecolinking was the first GREEN online guide. It brought forth the many ways computer users could go green .

Computer Privacy Handbook by Andre Bacard
Peachpit published the first guide to PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).

Gay and Lesbian Online by Jeff Dawson
Gay and Lesbian Online was "the first trade guide to lesbian and gay cyberspace". When it first published, it debuted at the Pride Parade where Peachpit set up a booth and author Jeff Dawson signed copies.

Avatars! Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds on the Internet by Bruce Damer
In 1997, six years before Second Life launched (and nine years before it became mainstream), Peachpit published Avatars with Bruce Damer.

Imprints

Although Peachpit Press is Peachpit's flagship imprint, Peachpit also publishes or partners with Adobe Press, Apple Certified, lynda.com, and New Riders.