Since 2003, Take Control Books has been the foremost publisher of consumer ebooks on technical topics, especially those pertatining to Apple products.
Take Control was started in 2003 by the husband-and-wife team Adam and Tonya Engst, who are best known for starting TidBITS, a website and weekly email newsletter about Apple and internet topics. In May 2017, Adam and Tonya sold the Take Control series to alt concepts—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. Along with his wife, Morgen Jahnke, Joe has continued to expand the Take Control catalog while maintaining the essential ingredients that made it successful from the very beginning.
Although Joe still writes some Take Control books (and serves as the Editor in Chief for the imprint), most of our titles have been 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 the late Charles Edge, Tom Negrino, and Sharon Zardetto. In 2025, Glenn Fleishman expanded his role at Take Control Books from author and editor to Executive Editor, in which capacity he is helping with strategic business development.
Joe and Morgen live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada with their two sons.