Fatbrain.com Delivers eMatter: First Secure Digital Publishing via the Internet.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--August 31, 1999--

Breakthrough e-commerce model allows publishers,

authors to retain digital rights on web-based sales

Fatbrain.com(TM) (Nasdaq:FATB), the Internet's most comprehensive professional bookstore, today unveiled the eMatter(TM) program, the first-ever secure digital publishing model that allows publishers and readers everywhere.

"There is a treAP Ventures, a leading research firm covering the digital publishing industry. "The economics of the traditioital publishing technologies including the new Ale to a broad audience of buyers and earning sia very high level of quality. By addressing the huge installed base of hundreds of millions of PC users, Microsoft Reader aims to quickly create an author's market of mimer base in our well-established forum for delivering valuable publications to experts in their fields."

Publishers Deliver eMatter Books, Magazine Content

The eMatter model allows publishers of books, magazines and corporate materials to deliver new content and delivery options for readers, including out-of-print titles, published books in partial or complete form, and preview portions of upcoming titles. As detailed in a separate release today, content providers from the broad publishing community already have signed up to distribute new and existing content as eMatter. These include Macmillan USA, McGraw-Hill (NYSE:MHP), O'Reilly and Associates, The Motley Fool, Salon.com (Nasdaq:SALN) and the Coriolis Group.

Self-publishing eMatter Documents

To publish an eMatter document, the author simply uploads the document to Fatbrain.com as an Adobe PDF file, Microsoft Word document, Postscript file or text file, sets a price, provides any summary information, and then places the work into one of the thousands of subject categories available through Fatbrain.com. The published eMatter document is posted for sale on www.fatbrain.com, where it can be found via normal search mechanisms and then purchased for download in electronic format. The author then receives a royalty check and a detailed sales report from Fatbrain.com based on the number of people who have purchased the work.

New Digital Rights Technologies

Fatbrain.com's eMatter initiative uses new technologies to protect the electronic rights of the document, including Adobe PDF Merchant and the Acrobat Reader with Web Buy, both announced today. Fatbrain.com also secures documents posted in Microsoft Word 97, 98 and 2000 file formats. Sample eMatter documents are available today at www.fatbrain.com. eMatter documents are expected to be widely available for purchase starting October 18, 1999.

"It is clear that Fatbrain.com's eMatter initiative will make a significant impact on the world of publishers, self-publishers and authors," said Joe Eschbach, vice president, Adobe Systems Incorporated. "Their business is designed around making it economical and practical for publishers and authors to sell and distribute their content electronically. At the heart of this model, Adobe PDF Merchant enables the publishing value chain to secure documents for digital distribution and sale at leading sites like Fatbrain.com."

Fatbrain.com's eMatter initiative offers publishers and authors instant access to an established channel of buyers plus higher royalties and greater flexibility. For publishers, using eMatter provides advantages such as faster time-to-market, a forum for out-of-print books or individual chapter previews and sales, shorter print runs and incremental revenues. For customers, eMatter provides targeted and instantly accessible documents in electronic format -- including focused information that is too limited in scope or audience to make it to market via traditional publishing.

"Microsoft is pleased that Fatbrain.com has chosen the Word file format for collecting and disseminating eMatter documents," said David Jaffe, product manager for Microsoft Office. "This will enable all users of Microsoft Word to quickly and easily publish and download secure content."

Royalty and Pricing Structure

Independent publishers and authors that post digital files via the Fatbrain.com eMatter program receive an initial 50 percent royalty for each copy of the title that is sold. In addition, publishers and authors can earn added royalties by signing up for Fatbrain.com's affiliates program. Through this program, authors and companies offer their works online via a link from their own Web site, directing sales to Fatbrain.com's online store.

As part of a limited-time promotion, authors that post eMatter before October 15, 1999 will earn a 100 percent royalty on each eMatter sale from October 18 through January 1, 2000, and a monthly $1 listing fee per title will be waived through April 1, 2000.

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.

Note to Editors: Fatbrain.com and eMatter are trademarks of Fatbrain.com, Inc. All company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.