Fictionwise, owned by

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 ...

since 2009, was one of the largest

electronic book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alth ...

sellers in North America with an estimated 1.5 million ebook content units sold in 2008. Fictionwise sold both DRM-

encrypted In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can deci ...

and unencrypted (DRM-free) ebooks in various formats (including

ePub EPUB is an e-book file format that uses the ".epub" file extension. The term is short for ''electronic publication'' and is sometimes styled ''ePub''. EPUB is supported by many e-readers, and compatible software is available for most smartpho ...

eReader An e-reader, also called an e-book reader or e-book device, is a mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and periodicals. Any device that can display text on a screen may act as an e-read ...

, and

Mobipocket Mobipocket SA was a French company incorporated in March 2000 that created the .mobi e-book file format and produced the Mobipocket Reader software for mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA) and desktop operating systems. The Mobipoc ...

) that were compatible with computers as well as a wide range of eBook devices,

PDA PDA may refer to: Science and technology * Patron-driven acquisition, a mechanism for libraries to purchase books *Personal digital assistant, a mobile device * Photodiode array, a type of detector * Polydiacetylenes, a family of conducting po ...

s, and

Smartphones A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

. In November 2012, almost four years after being acquired by Barnes & Noble, the company announced that it was "winding down its business".

History

The website Fictionwise.com was launched on June 5, 2000, as a partnership between J. Stephen Pendergrast and Mindwise Media, LLC, which is owned by the latter's brother R. Scott Pendergrast. The success of Fictionwise led to its being spun out of Mindwise Media into a separate company in October 2000. On January 1, 2008, Fictionwise acquired the eReader business unit of Motricity, Inc. EReader, one of the oldest ebook sellers, originated under the name Peanut Press (which was founded in 1998) and was later renamed Palm Reader, a division of Palm Digital Media, when acquired by

Palm, Inc. Palm, Inc. was an American company that specialized in manufacturing personal digital assistants (PDAs) and various other electronics. They were the designer of the PalmPilot, the first PDA successfully marketed worldwide, as well as the Treo 6 ...

By acquiring eReader, Fictionwise nearly doubled in revenue. After the eReader acquisition, Fictionwise immediately began expanding platform coverage of the

eBook An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

format to include the three most recent versions of the

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

operating system, the newer

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lap ...

operating system, and the iPhone and

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a musi ...

platforms. They also made the "Pro" versions of eReader software free and developed the first mobile-friendly version of the eReader.com commerce site. In December 2008, Fictionwise licensed the eReader format to

Lexcycle Lexcycle was a software company that made electronic book reading software. They were responsible for Stanza, which ran on the iPhone, iPod Touch, Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh platforms. In April 2009, Lexcycle was acquired by Amazon.com ...

, which integrated it into their

Stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have ei ...

ebook reader for iPhone. Fictionwise indicated that additional licensing deals were in progress; the company released a

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...

version of eReader on March 11, 2009 and developed an Android version of eReader. On March 5, 2009,

acquired Fictionwise for $15.7 million in cash (plus the potential for

earn-outs Earnout or earn-out refers to a pricing structure in mergers and acquisitions where the sellers must "earn" part of the purchase price based on the performance of the business following the acquisition. Description Earnouts are often employed when ...

). Barnes & Noble said it planned to use Fictionwise as part of its overall digital strategy, which included the launch of an e-Bookstore later that year. In March 2010, Fictionwise discontinued its "Buywise Club" which, in exchange for a membership fee, had offered discounted pricing for all their ebooks. On November 15, 2012, Fictionwise announced that it would "wind down its operation" on December 4, 2012, and US customers would lose download access to their purchased books on December 21, 2012, non-US customers on January 31, 2013. US and UK customers were offered the option to transfer their customer account, including their purchased e-books, to a user account for Barnes & Noble's NOOK.

References

External links

Fictionwise websiteeBookwise website, operated by FictionwiseeReader website, operated by Fictionwise
{{Ebooks American booksellers Barnes & Noble Companies established in 2000 Companies disestablished in 2012 Ebook suppliers

History

See also

References

External links