Lapine is best known for his publishing business, particularly with his first company,
DNA Publications, which published a range of magazines including
Harsh Mistress,
Absolute Magnitude,
Dreams of Decadence,
Fantastic Stories,
Aboriginal SF,
Mythic Delirium,
The Official KISS Magazine,
Science Fiction Chronicle and
Weird Tales, from 1993 to 2007. As of 2004 the company was the second-largest genre-magazine publisher in the US. Lapine was a 2000 World Fantasy Award nominee for DNA Publications, and a 2002 Hugo Award nominee for Absolute Magnitude in the semi-prozine category. He was also nominated for a Chesley Award for Best Art Director in 2008. However, DNA publications failed suddenly in 2007, collapsing due to market changes that led to unfulfilled subscriptions and business debts. Lapine also operates a book program focusing on public domain releases, Wilder Publications, which continues to publish after the collapse of DNA Publications. Because of the dated nature of some of these books, Wilder included a caveat warning parents about discussing societal changes with their children before allowing them to read classic books like
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. However, including this caveat on the company's copy of the
US Constitution led to a controversy in 2010. along with a science fiction / fantasy imprint, Fantastic Books, with freelance editing by Douglas Cohen,
Marty Halpern,
Ian Randal Strock,
Darrell Schweitzer and
David Truesdale. Ian Randal Strock was then hired full-time as publisher of Fantastic Books. After announcing the re-launch of
Fantastic Stories, Lapine decided to purchase
Realms of Fantasy, instead. With
Realms of Fantasy relaunched under new management, plans were underway to put out
Dreams of Decadence. However, in September 2010,
Realms of Fantasy was sold to Damnation Books; in November 2010 Fantastic Books was sold to Ian Randal Strock, and all
Dreams of Decadence subscriptions were rolled into
Realms of Fantasy. In 2014 Lapine announced the inception of the web-zine
Fantastic Stories of the Imagination as a new venture, which was preceded by two anthologies. ==Writing career==