Fictionwise Announces 2003 eBook Awards
Author of the Year, eBook of the Year, Best Selling, and Highest Rated eBooks

January 9, 2003 -- Chatham, NJ -- Fictionwise.com, the leading independent eBook publisher and distributor in the world, announced today its annual awards for the top-selling and highest-rated eBooks and authors for 2003.

2003 Author of the Year

Best-selling science fiction and fantasy author Lois McMaster Bujold is Fictionwise’s 2003 eBook Author of the Year. The award is based on sales and member ratings of eBooks sold at Fictionwise in 2003. Ms. Bujold is one of the top-selling authors at Fictionwise and her works maintained an extremely high average rating from Fictionwise members. Seven of the top twenty best-selling titles in 2003 were authored by Ms. Bujold.

Authors David Weber and Mike Resnick were the second and third highest ranking authors, respectively. Mr. Resnick was Fictionwise’s 2001 Author of the Year and the second highest ranked author in 2002.

“For the second year in a row, Lois McMaster Bujold is our author of the year,” said Scott Pendergrast, co-owner at Fictionwise.com. “We want to congratulate her--and thank her for being an important part of Fictionwise. Ms. Bujold’s eBooks are always popular, and perhaps more importantly, our members consistently rate her works at an exceptionally high level.”

Ms. Bujold said: "I am very pleased that Fictionwise's patrons have once again chosen to single out my work for this honor. It is very clear that eBooks help to bring me a world-wide audience, and to break down all sorts of barriers for all sorts of readers.”

2003 eBook of the Year

Dan Brown’s international bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, is the Fictionwise eBook of the Year. This award is calculated based on sales and member ratings. Mr. Brown's novel was a top seller throughout 2003 and is one of the highest rated eBooks of all time at Fictionwise.

Top-Selling eBooks of 2003:

1. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
2. The Year Ahead 2004 [Includes all Zodiac Signs] by Susan Miller
3. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
4. Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
5. The Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson

Highest Rated eBooks of 2003:

Fictionwise members have submitted more than 185,000 ratings on thousands of eBooks. The following titles had the highest average rating (to qualify for this list a title had to have received a minimum of 40 ratings):

1. Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb
2. Empire from the Ashes by David Weber
3. White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey
4. Masterharper of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
5. Morgawr [The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara Book 3] by Terry Brooks

Fictionwise’s bestselling and highest rated eBooks from 2003 are now on sale for a short time.
Customers will receive a 40% Micropay Rebate when buying with a credit card on any of these titles.

Fictionwise.com Sets New Sales Record in 2003

In 2003, Fictionwise.com maintained its position as one of the top eBook retailers in the world with over 260,000 paid units sold and over one million dollars of eBook content sales. Revenue for the full year 2003 was approximately double 2002 revenue, and Fictionwise is currently breaking even on a cash flow basis. Since launching in June 2000, Fictionwise has consistently set double-digit percentage consecutive-quarter sales records. The fourth quarter of 2003 set the fourteenth consecutive double-digit quarterly sales increase. According to industry statistics, Fictionwise has approximately ten percent of the consumer downloadable eBook market as of the third quarter of 2003, and is growing significantly faster than the overall eBook market.

ABOUT FICTIONWISE.COM

Fictionwise.com (http://www.fictionwise.com)--which has 18,000 eBooks in its catalog--retails award-winning and high-quality eBooks by top authors in popular eBook formats for PCs, Macs, and handheld devices such as Palm, PocketPC, and Gemstar devices.