[1] Originally called 1stBooks, the company was founded in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, in January 1997.

In October 2005, AuthorHouse was nominated by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce for the Small Business of the Year Award.

Later in 2007, Bertram established Author Solutions and acquired AuthorHouse competitor iUniverse,[4] before relocating its operations to Indiana in early 2008.

[5] In August 2006, a Kansas trial court ordered AuthorHouse to pay $240,000 in punitive damage as well as $230,000 in actual damage to romance author Rebecca Brandewyne and her parents for publishing a book by her ex-husband that was "harmful" and libelous of them.

Although the court acknowledged that AuthorHouse employed a business model that placed a degree of responsibility for the content of works upon the authors, in this case it found that AuthorHouse had failed to act when it was informed that the book might include libelous content.