Podcast Edition of hackoff.com Mystery Now Available; Web-based Challenge to Traditional Publishing Continues with Free Audio.

STOWE, Vt. -- Podcast episodes of the popular novel hackoff.com: an historic murder mystery set in the Internet bubble and rubble are now available for free download from a number of online sources including iTunes and www.hackoff.com.

Author Tom Evslin narrates most episodes but is joined by guests for reenactments of some dialog. The podcast can be listened to on a personal computer, an iPod, or any other MP3 player and is available for free subscription either by RSS feed or email. Specially developed enhancement to RSS technology enables users to control the frequency with which they receive episodes of the serial,

Release of the hardcover edition is scheduled for the first quarter of 2006.

M. J. Rose, international bestselling author of The Delilah Effect and marketing guru, says: "With over 30 million people owning mp3 listening devices one of the smartest and most innovative ways to promote these days is through free content via podcasts. People are already listening, why not give them something interesting and compelling to listen to. I've been blogging that the publishing industry is missing the boat on not using audio in an innovate way - but here's an idea I impressed with and will be watching it carefully."

Evslin began his challenge to the traditional publishing model with the free online serialization of hackoff.com as a blook (book in blog format) in September of 2005. The blook has attracted thousands of readers and subscribers to its RSS and email feeds. People who invested during the Internet bubble or might invest during the next bubble are finding hackoff.com a "must read". Bankers, hackers, MBAs, and entrepreneurs are all finding familiar characters and situations in the book.

"This is not the end of traditional books," says Evslin. "Many people are pre-ordering hackoff.com though Amazon because they want to read it on the beach or because they like the feel of a book. But the book marketing and distribution system IS about to go through the same kind of disruptive change that telephony and the music business are now experiencing. We're finding that making the book available free online is a very effective way to publicize a new novel by a new author. Some people like to read online; others download free chapter PDFs. Now they will be able to listen on their iPods while driving to work. The Web, at its best, is about choice."

Critic and super-blogger Jeff Jarvis at www.buzzmachine.com says: "Put him (Tom) on the short list of the people who made the internet the internet. When he headed up AT&T's internet services, he introduced flat-rate pricing and brought on the masses. He went on to see the power of VOIP before the industry did. And as you'd expect, he's not publishing the old-fashioned way."

Author Tom Evslin was cofounder and CEO of VoIP pioneer ITXC Corp which went public in 1999 at the height of the Internet bubble. At AT&T Evslin led the team that developed AT&T's ISP, WorldNet Service. Earlier in his career he worked for Microsoft where he was responsible for email products including Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. Prior to that he founded and ran software developer Solutions, Inc. which was one of the first companies to develop software for the Macintosh.

Evslin's well-read blog is at blog.tomvslin.com.

In order to allow users to control the pace at which they get new episodes, dotHill Press and partner Signal Advertising developed the interface to RSS technology which allows users to set the episode frequency and pause and restart the feed at will. This interface was developed using APIs from FeedBurner and FeedBlitz, both of whom have been associated with the blook from the beginning of the project.

Evslin and publisher Kelly Evans founded dotHill Press to publish hackoff.com both online and offline. dotHill has developed tools to adapt blog and RSS technology to book publishing. Tips and tools for other online authors are available at www.dothillpress.com.

The fictional company hackoff.com (which has a faux website www.hackoff.com/corp) sells antihacker software and services to the dotcom industry. The book opens with the death of founder and CEO Larry Lazard then flashes back through the company's IPO and secondary, a visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, the horror of 9/11, and an attempted hostile takeover. It concludes with a hacker's-heaven of plot twists and treachery during the investigation of Larry's demise. The story is an artful combination of a business case study of a fledgling public company during the bubble and an intriguing whodunit.