Who Was First?

Who wrote the first self-publishing program for computers? I wrote a program to self-publish a few of my own books on floppy disks, I think in 1991. That ran under DOS. In 1992, Rev. Bob Clarke approached me, to seek the publication of his Bible Botany on disk. We began that year to broaden my system to incorporate his book. This led to the Text Distribution System, so that anyone could publish (almost) any book, yet without illustrations. Here is my system pictured in its third major incarnation, which was in 1995. The goal was to enable others to put their own work on floppy disk in less than an hour. Now, it was in 1992 that Expanded Books created the Expanded Books Toolkit, to enable authors to publish their own books"to present them on a computer screen". Today, of course, this idea is everywhere. Anyone can self-publish to a computer screen. OBSERVATION: Who was first? I have tried to establish a date for my system, but so far could only find that I began, with Rev. Clarke, to broaden its usefulness in 1992. You may click on the photo to enlarge.