Manning Publications

• 1. Introduction

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  Manning Publications began in 1990 not as a technology company, but as a book packaging business. Marjan Bace and Lee Fitzpatrick were the two business partners who launched it, and their initial ambitions stretched across all of engineering and computing. One early milestone was a materials science series of roughly a dozen specialized volumes, including the large Encyclopedia of Materials Characterization, which drew on more than fifty contributors. What would eventually pull Manning away from those broader horizons, and turn it into one of the defining publishers of the computing age? The answer lies partly in timing, partly in a single early customer, and partly in a set of book covers that trace their imagery back to the early nineteenth century.

• 2. From Packaging to Computing

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  Bace and Fitzpatrick built their early reputation by doing business with most of the established technical publishers, including the IEEE Computer Society Press. Their scope at that stage included all of engineering, not just computing. But computing topics began to feel like the liveliest and most interesting part of their catalog. Manning's first customer for a computer book was Addison Wesley. That relationship mattered beyond the single transaction. Addison Wesley's standing in the industry helped open doors at other leading commercial houses, a number of whom became Manning customers in turn. Over time the gravitational pull of the computer industry proved decisive, and computing became the focus of Manning's publishing work.

• 3. The MEAP Program

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  Manning introduced a distinctive offering it called the Manning Early Access Program, known by the acronym MEAP. Subscribers to the program receive completed chapters incrementally as a book is being written, before the final version is published. The arrangement gives readers early access to material and gives authors a live audience during the writing process. Manning has also partnered with its competitor O'Reilly Media to add some of its digital library to the Safari Books Online cloud platform, extending the reach of its titles beyond its own direct channels.

• 4. Covers From History

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  Every book Manning publishes carries a cover illustration drawn from historical depictions of traditional dress customs from around the world. The sources for these images span a range of periods and purposes. One is the 1805 edition of Sylvain Maréchal's four-volume compendium of regional dress customs. Another is Thomas Jefferys' A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, Ancient and Modern. The choice to anchor a computing publisher's visual identity in centuries-old records of human clothing is an unusual one, and it has given Manning's catalog a recognizable look that sets it apart from competitors whose covers tend toward abstract geometry or photographic imagery.