Dave Howell

Founder and "Chief Innovator" of Seattle Book Company.  Seattle Book Company, originally Alexandria Digital Literature, has been publishing SF online for over 10 years.  The initial lineup included Vonda McIntyre and Robert Silverberg, and currently we have over 700 titles from over 100 authors under contract.  We also have the first custom book recommender/collaborative filter on the Web: Hypatia.  We provide e-book publishing services for other publishers, including DAW Books, and the RosettaSolutions division has launched the netGalley service to provide a comprehensive Advanced Reading Copy management system (aka "galley" or "page" proofs for review purposes), currently under contract to The Hatchette Book Group publishers, which includes the Orbit imprint for science fiction, as well as such well known names as Warner Books and Little, Brown.

I co-wrote and co-edited Wizards of the Coast's first product, "The Primal Order," and wrote the 4th book in that series, "Chessboards: The Planes of Possibility."  I was the production manager for Magic: The Gathering from the first Alpha edition through the 3rd expansion, and also managed production of the first couple of foreign editions.  I created and managed the online support team as the Cyberspace Liaison, which for a while had the broadest online support of any company.  (Broader than WordPerfect, Microsoft, Sierra Online, you name it.)  I transferred these responsibilities to others when I was tapped to found the Book Publishing Division, which worked with HarperPrism to publish our first tie-in novels as part of their launch line.  Since that time, I've been a frequent playtester and design assistant for James Ernest and Cheapass Games.

I founded and chaired Foolscap I.  Foolscap's a small SF convention in Seattle.  We're now up to #10.  I've been on the managing board and run the big Saturday Night event (a game show) for the first seven, as well as been Master of Ceremonies for many.  I've also been head of Static Programming (twice) and Programming (once) for Norwescon the big regional SF convention for the Pacific Northwest area of the USA, as well as a bunch of other positions a bit farther from the top of the tree.