About Us

OBJECTIVE:

To give our customers and our eBook industry peers (even our competition) a glimpse into our thoughts and observations about living and breathing in this brave new world of eBook retailing. It’s currently the Wild Wild West out here in eBookland and since we’ve both been around for quite awhile (and not without some scarring and arrows in our backs), perhaps we can lend some insight into this new digital landscape that is emerging.  Publishing is a fascinating, beautiful and fatally flawed industry.   One of our goals is to give you our take and shed some light on those mysteries for our curious readers.

WHAT THIS BLOG IS NOT:

We don’t intend this blog to be a marketing vehicle for the Diesel eBook store or for our various promotions (well . . . . maybe a little bit).  However, if you do wish to learn about our current deals and latest titles, do check out either our Facebook or Twitter pages.

If you have an issue (believe it or not, it does happen occasionally), chances are that you didn’t visit our tremendously helpful customer support center found here.

We both reserve the right to ignore and delete any lame-O posts and snotty comments without hesitation or regret.

SO, WHO THE HELL ARE “WE”?

Diesel is L. Scott Redford and Kelley L Allen.

Diesel is the world’s largest independent eBook store.  Scott is its founder and president.  Launched in December 2004 out of Richmond, VA, Diesel is, to put it simply, Scott’s baby.   One could easily compare Diesel to the Millennium Falcon of the eBookstore universe – yeah, she’s not the prettiest eBook retailer out there, or the slickest, or the most newfangled – but man, is she fast and does she have a lot of tricks up her sleeve!   (As Han Solo said, “She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid. I’ve made a lot of special modifications myself.”)

Kelley has been working in eBooks since October 2000.  It was all an accident really — a happy mistake.   When Warren Adler, author of The War of the Roses and Random Hearts, was looking for someone to help him digitalize all his books into eBook and POD, Kelley just happened to be the first person who contacted him.  Warren nonchalantly said, “You’ll do.  I can’t be bothered to look for anyone else.”  So began her digital career.  Eventually, Kelley landed jobs at some NYC publishing houses like AOL Time Warner Book Group (now called Hachette) and Random House.  She really enjoyed working at the NYC houses in the early 2000s since…1) no one knew what an eBook was.   2)  Kelley got her kicks from terrorizing all the in-house luddites with eBook demonstrations on devices like the Gemstar REB-1100 and 1200, the Palm m505, the Newton, the Franklin eBookman, the Sony Librie and the Microsoft tablet (2003 edition).    However, she made it clear that, in her book (pun intended), the writing was on the wall…print publishing better get with the program or face the horror of becoming obsolete.   Needless to say, she wasn’t very popular during sales conferences.

Kelley’s last gig before Diesel was at Sony’s eBook Division.

Currently, she’s happily working at Diesel, juggling many different hats in the company’s quest for world eBook domination.

LET’S GET GOING!

So, again, we’re thrilled you’ve landed on our launch pad.  Please put your chair in the upright position, adjust your visor, hang on to the scroll wheel on your mouse, and get ready to help us blast off.  We think you’ll like what you’re about to read.  (Oh, and just ignore the big furry Wookie in the co-pilot’s seat.)

Scott Redford and Kelley L. Allen