That was Then...

Continuing our reverie on the early days, now that we're a dozen years old today...

Crystal Giardina has worked in our Accounting department for eight years.

My most fond memory is when I started at EC. I was pregnant with Hayley and two weeks after I started I was put on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy. I was so upset because I already loved working at EC and thought it was going to come to an end so soon after starting. But Patty said, just come back after she's born, no big deal! I was very shocked and thought I wouldn't have my place when trying to return... But Hayley is now 8 years old and I'm still working for EC.  Most places would have said, Too bad. Not Patty! This is why the company is so great.

Martha Punches, Customer Service Specialist, who has now been here TEN years:

Back in the olden days, before the "new-fangled" way of sending ebooks as links, we actually sent ebooks to customers as burned CDs, mailed by USPS. The customer would have to save the book from the disk to their computer and either print out a copy or read it on the computer. This was back when we had very few releases per month, but was still a lot of work. I'm glad technology has advanced to what we are today!

Raelene Gorlinsky, Publisher--almost ten years at EC if you count the first year as a freelance editor, before being hired as Managing Editor:

I was a very early customer, before I started to work for the company. When I bought my first EC ebook (The Empress' New Clothes by Jaid Black, of course), a pdf file was emailed to me. I had a problem reading the font and didn't know how to adjust it, so I emailed "Service". I was astounded and impressed when Jaid herself (aka, our founder Tina Engler) sent me a new version of the ebook - one she had specially created in the font size I wanted! EC's reputation for incredible customer service started very early.

I moved from Oregon to Ohio to work at the first EC non-home-based office when it was still very new. There were about ten of us then in the small offices and warehouse space. There's even more of a "family" feeling when it is such a small group. Patty was really into decorating the offices. Lots of Egyptian motif. The bathroom knick-knacks were all decorated with palm trees. We had a tiny kitchenette, and I was amazed that the refrigerator was kept full of snacks and lunch foods for all. We still have lots of food-oriented holiday parties at our office!