About

Digital Crystal Ball, one of LightSpeed's first titles.

LightSpeed Publishing, Inc. was originally founded in 1995 to produce material to help everyday people better understand and use their personal computers. Our company has served as a valuable resource for the publishing and technical industries for fifteen years. Early on, we self-published a few of our own titles, including The Coin and Stamp Collectors’ Electronic Handbook and The Digital Crystal Ball, which were distributed by Publishers Group West.

We now specialize in creating and packaging general non-fiction titles including music and pop culture books and how-to topics. Our clients have included Sterling Publishing, Microsoft Press, International Masters Publishing, Peachpit Press, The Coriolis Group, Sybex, Ventana Communications, Waite Group Press, DeAvila-Duncan (McGraw-Hill), and New World Library.

Simply put, packaging means preparing materials for other companies to publish and distribute. LightSpeed Publishing employs up to twenty subcontractors to handle all facets of your projects. These include a team of writers, editors, designers, desktop publishers, illustrators, photographers, indexers, proofreaders, and technical consultants. With over fifty books produced or contributed to, and two long-running, successful “continuity card” series (a total of over 1500 gatefold full-color pieces) delivered, we have never disappointed a client.

Founder Scott Calamar has more than thirty years of professional experience in project, personnel, and company management. His skills include writing, editing, developing, managing, and publishing books, newspapers, magazines, subscription cards, software, and Web sites.

Scott Calamar, Pres.

Scott’s career began in weekly newspapers in Southeastern Connecticut and Northern California. He was a pioneer in the technical writing industry, contributing light-hearted tutorial articles to various computer magazines in the early 1980s. Scott has worked for a developer of ESL tests, and served as editor-in-chief of a ground-breaking computer book company, building it from a book packager with three people into a multi-million dollar publisher with over thirty employees and numerous titles on the best-seller list.

He is technically savvy on both Macintosh and Windows platforms and comfortable with Web site design. In his spare time, Scott is a songwriter/musician versed in audio production techniques and very involved in the Ashland, Oregon, music scene, where he resides.