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By David Rothman

ereaderstorePublishing guru Mike Shatzkin predicts that “Palm, which has historically been the bestselling format, will have had its best year-on-year increase” in 2008. And it probably will.

But guess what? Motricity, owner of eReader.com, the 23,000-title flagship store for e-books in the Palm format, now called eReader, is selling its retail e-book operations to Fictionwise. Did Motricity panic? Worry about competing long term against Amazon? Or just decide that eReader didn’t fit in with its general corporate strategy?

ETI machines to read eReader someday?

Whatever the case, the sale is good news for e-book-lovers. Here’s the sentence that leapt out at me from the news release: “…Fictionwise plans to build on the success of the eReader eBook format by expanding the product to function on an even wider range of handheld devices, allowing customers the flexibility to read on whatever devices best meet their needs.” Hmm. Just what might be up with Fictionwise and partners in the software area?

Given Fictionwise’s close relationship with eBook Technologies, Inc., source of the eBookwise reading devices, could we even see eReader running someday on ETI gizmos, including E Ink machines under consideration? Just speculating. It would also be cool if the Steve and Scott Pendergrast, Fictionwise’s owners, could persuade Palm to do an e-book optimized version of the TX, just as Paul Biba and other Palm fans have suggested. The TX has WiFi capabilties, meaning that the right software whizzes could make e-books as easy to download to it as the Kindle, at least in homes with WiFi. The TX’s basic technology is aging, and with enough customer demand, Palm could probably drive the price down to half of the $400 that Amazon wants for the Kindle.

Among the more community minded of e-stores

Tech savvy isn’t the only distinction of Fictionwise. Scott and Steve Pendergrast have been among the more community-minded of the e-book retailers. The foremost example of this is the Fictionwise e-mail list, where they communicate directly with their oft-outspoken customers and writers. The brothers have worked hard to help e-only writers such as Ed Howdershelt gain a following.

The Pendergrasts have also done their best to offer books without DRM—would that the major publishing conglomerates pay more attention to them! Plus, the brothers have supported the idea of e-book standards, while at the same time laudably offering books in different formats to help e-book-lovers deal with the notorious Tower of eBabel.

Looking over the eReader site, I sense it could stand updating to make it more interactive–with reader ratings of books, for example—and Fictionwise could be just the outfit to do it.

Good luck to all. For the record, here’s the news release.


Fictionwise Acquires eReader eBook Business Unit From Motricity

Fictionwise, Inc., a leading independent eBook retailer; and Motricity, Inc., a leading provider of mobile content services and solutions, today announced that Fictionwise has acquired the eReader.com retail electronic book business unit from Motricity.

Chatham, NJ (PRWEB) January 9, 2008 — Fictionwise, Inc., a leading independent eBook retailer; and Motricity, Inc., a leading provider of mobile content services and solutions, today announced that Fictionwise has acquired the eReader.com retail electronic book business unit from Motricity.

eReader.com is one of the largest and longest-running eBook retailers on the Internet, with a large customer base and over 23,000 titles available from major publishers and authors. Electronic books from eReader.com work on a wide variety of handheld devices, giving customers the flexibility to read on whatever devices they currently own, with the ability to transfer their purchases to future devices.

“eReader.com is one of the crown jewels of the eBook world,” commented Steve Pendergrast, co-founder of Fictionwise, Inc. “With this acquisition, Fictionwise breaks into the very top ranks of the eBook retail market. Synergies between our business units will open the door to some very interesting developments for our customers in the coming months.”

“Over the years, eReader.com nurtured and grew a loyal following of customers while pioneering methods to help raise the general adoption and consumption of eBooks, ” said Chris Chuang, Vice President of Strategic Development for Motricity. “eReader.com is a strong strategic fit with Fictionwise, not only in terms of the additional customer footprint it brings, but also in that Fictionwise is acquiring some of the leading technologies and infrastructure in the eBooks market.”

Fictionwise plans to maintain ereader.com as an independent web site to capitalize on the strong brand and loyal customer base achieved by the site. However, Fictionwise plans to build on the success of the eReader eBook format by expanding the product to function on an even wider range of handheld devices, allowing customers the flexibility to read on whatever devices best meet their needs.

About Fictionwise
Fictionwise.com is a leading independent eBook retailer. Fictionwise sells award-winning and high-quality eBooks by top authors in every major eBook format, which can be read on hundreds of different handheld devices as well as personal computers. Established in June 2000, Fictionwise has sold millions of eBooks to hundreds of thousands of loyal customers worldwide. Fictionwise operates not only their flagship storefront, Fictionwise.com, but also eReader.com, eBookwise.com, and storefronts for several independent publishers. For more information, visit www.Fictionwise.com

About Motricity
Motricity is a leading provider of mobile content services and solutions that enable consumers to receive the right content at the right time, every time. The company’s offerings span the content delivery chain, enabling compelling end user experiences and delivering profitable and reliable mobile content offerings for mobile operators, media and entertainment companies, mobile specialists and more. Motricity’s customers include 11 of the top 13 carriers in North America and 20 of the top television networks with marquee partners such as MTV, BET, Turner, AT&T, Alltel, Bell Mobility and others. Products and services range from mobile portals and storefronts to messaging aggregation with access to more than 200 million mobile subscribers. Motricity is headquartered in Durham, N.C., and has offices in Los Angeles, Seattle, the U.K., France, the Netherlands and Germany. For more information, visit www.Motricity.com.

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