Edgar Laube is Hanging up the Phone to Focus on Family and Golf

Ed Laube, co-founder and Vice President of Publishing, is retiring at the end of 2024. As a co-founder, Ed has been part of TMP’s story from its beginning in 2004, recruiting academic authors to publish on TMP’s platform—one of the first to offer a range of digital and print options and to sell directly to students.

A publisher’s perspective; a publisher’s hands-on response

Ed was known for his quick response to authors and instructors. In the time when email correspondence ruled the industry, Ed was known for picking up the phone to answer authors’ and instructors’ inquiries. Ed’s treatment of TMP’s academic customers, peppered with Ed’s curiosity and dry wit, made Ed a favorite in an industry that’s become somewhat automatized.

A Legacy like Few Others

After graduating from Macalester College and earning his MA at the University of Iowa, Ed began his publishing career as a copy editor with Wm. C. Brown Publishers (Dubuque, IA). He gradually moved up the publisher food chain as a sales rep, marketing manager, editor, editor-in-chief. He and TMP co-founder Tom Doran went on to launch CourseWise, which was backed by Houghton Mifflin and eventually sold to Atomic Dog Publishing (which was acquired by Cengage). Ed was instrumental in helping ADP launch some of the first truly useful eBooks, working with authors and production folks to formulate new processes for digital publishing. Ed left Atomic Dog to help Doran launch TMP in 2004 and has been its Publisher for the last 20 years.

Our Favorite Ed-ism

In the fast-paced world of publishing start-ups (Ed was involved with 3 of them), where the advice is sometimes skewed towards the “move fast and break things” mantra, Ed would like to remind us all to slow down and take a deep breath with this nugget: “Let’s drive off that bridge when we get to it…”

Our thanks

Ed’s retirement is an occasion to acknowledge that work and the publishing relationships developed over the years. We are grateful to Ed for being part of Textbook Media’s story. As the company looks toward its next chapter, we also want to acknowledge the people who have helped bring it to this point.

On behalf of the team, thank you, Ed. We wish you all the best in retirement.