More than 1,400 Authors Sign Up for Fatbrain.com eMatter Program in First Two Weeks

Business Wire, Sept 20, 1999

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 20, 1999--

Fatbrain.com(TM) (Nasdaq:FATB), the Internet's most comprehensive professional bookstore, today announced that more than 1,400 individual authors have registered to publish their work via Fatbrain.com's new eMatter(TM) initiative within the first two weeks of the program's existence. By enabling authors, publishers and corporations to securely publish and sell their work online, Fatbrain.com's eMatter initiative provides a new channel for the distribution of content over the Internet. Fatbrain.com uses new digital rights technologies to secure eMatter documents, allowing authors and publishers to earn at least 50 percent in royalties on every sale.

So far, the posted eMatter content has covered a broad range of professional topics including technology, business, finance, medicine and science, plus a variety of creative subjects such as fiction, poetry, self-help and how-to guides.

"Writers are jumping at the chance to become eMatter authors," said Fatbrain.com CEO Chris MacAskill. "eMatter provides the first secure online publishing of content, whether it's new, existing, or out of print. The response by talented individuals proves there exists an untapped reservoir of creative genius waiting to be discovered by our audience of readers at Fatbrain.com."

Examples of documents that have been uploaded as digital eMatter include:

-- Venture Capital Opportunities -- John B. Vinturella

-- The C/C Sourcebook -- Victor R. Volkman

-- A Guide to Investment in Small Banks -- Douglas Hughes

-- Jim Schaefer's Y2K Survival Dictionary -- James Stephen Schaefer

-- Meeting in Hyperspace: How to Expand Your Personal Horizons --

Michael Friganiotis

-- MyEssay.com's MBA Application Kit -- Vedant Mimani

-- On the Nature of Inertia -- Charles T. Ridgely

-- Soviet Odyssey: Two diaries from the Russian Arctic in the final

days of Soviet empire -- Howard Weaver

-- TCP/IP Concepts -- Debbra Wetteroth

-- Technology for Lawyers -- P.C. McGrew

-- The Education of a CD-ROM Publisher: An Insider's History of

Electronic Publishing -- Katherine W. Cochrane

-- The Seven Guiding Principles of Top Performing Companies -- Bob

Bennett

-- How to make your car last 300,000 miles -- Inger Tsai

"With eMatter, I am able to distribute my writing outside of the traditional publishing parameters, which leads me to a quicker deployment, higher royalty rate and easier distribution mechanism," said Joe Matheny, author of Why DVD: A Meat & Potatoes Guide for the Uninitiated, and The Incunabula Papers: Ong's Hat and other Gateways to New Dimensions, a science fiction novel.

David Chereb, Ph.D., President of eForecast Institute and author of SIGN OF THE TIMES: New Strategies for the Digital Economy said, "By publishing via eMatter, it's easier to update content and keep it current. eMatter self-publishing also leads to a reduction in overall costs, resulting in a lower price for the consumer and with Fatbrain's attractive royalty structure, writers receive higher payments on their work. It's a win-win situation."

Arthur Asa Berger, Professor, San Francisco State University said, "Fatbrain.com has at long last provided a channel to supplement my traditionally-published work with self-published material that is somewhat offbeat--which traditional publishers in America are unwilling to take a chance on. I can now distribute all of my work, regardless of subject matter."

Teddy Keeton, president, Community Development, Research and Solutions, Inc., said, "I will be using eMatter to self-publish works on community and juvenile justice issues, intervention and prevention -- topics that are hard to promote to traditional publishers. Bravo, Fatbrain, for allowing writers and researchers a vehicle to share our experience, theories and successful programs."

Abraham Lieberman, medical director of the National Parkinson Foundation in Miami, Florida, said, "Fatbrain.com has at long last provided a viable avenue for me to distribute my work to the public. My research into Adolph Hitler's Parkinson's disease has led to the creation of Hitler and His Shrink, a short-story fictionalized account of what may have happened in Vienna in 1938, before Hitler invaded Austria, if Hitler had consulted Sigmund Freud. Before eMatter, there was no reasonable way for me to offer this content to the medical and historical community and the general public, and be paid for my efforts."

eMatter documents will be available for purchase at www.fatbrain.com on October 18, 1999, pending implementation of Fatbrain.com's secure file formatting software.

About Fatbrain.com

Fatbrain.com, the Internet's most comprehensive professional bookstore, is the first e-commerce provider to deliver secure digital publishing. Recently named the number two fastest-growing public company in Silicon Valley, Fatbrain.com offers a world-class selection of books, training materials and documentation for professionals in business and finance, technology and other industries. Through its corporate intranet bookstore program, Fatbrain.com is accessible from the desktops of more than 1.3 million employees at customer sites. Fatbrain.com offers discounts of up to 40 percent, and all in-stock orders placed by 4 PM PST ship the same business day. Visit Fatbrain.com on the Web at http://www.fatbrain.com.