Take Control was started in 2003 by the husband-and-wife team Adam and Tonya Engst. By the time they began Take Control, they had authored or edited more than 25 traditional books and written hundreds of magazine articles for major Mac magazines. And, they’d spent the last 15 years gaining experience in internet publishing with TidBITS, a website and weekly email newsletter about Apple and internet topics. These experiences helped them develop the Take Control model, which results in highly practical ebooks that cover much more detail than a magazine article but that are shorter, more focused, and more timely than a typical printed book.
In May 2017, Adam and Tonya sold the Take Control series to alt concepts, inc.—a company run by the most prolific Take Control author, Joe Kissell. You can read about the transition in Take Control Books Acquired by Joe Kissell and the Take Control Transition FAQ. Along with his wife, Morgen Jahnke, Joe has continued to expand the Take Control series while maintaining the essential ingredients that made it successful from the very beginning.
Although Joe still occasionally writes Take Control books (and serves as the Editor in Chief for the series), most of our titles are written and edited by other well-known tech experts, such as Andy Affleck, Caroline Rose, Glenn Fleishman, Jason Snell, Jeff Carlson, Jeff Porten, Josh Centers, Kelly Turner, Kirk McElhearn, Michael E. Cohen, Robyn Weisman, Scholle McFarland, and Sharon Zardetto.
Joe and Morgen live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada with their two sons and their cat.