Fictionwise.com Launches Isaac Asimov eBooks
First Asimov Fiction Ever to be Available as eBooks

June 13, 2001 -- Chatham, NJ -- Fictionwise.com announced today that it has secured electronic rights to several of Isaac Asimov's most famous short fiction works, including two "Foundation" stories and a "Robot" story. None of Asimov's fiction works have ever before been available in eBook format.

"In 2000, Stephen King put eBooks on the map and literally launched an industry," said Scott Pendergrast, co-publisher at Fictionwise.com. "In the second half of 2001, we believe the availability of Isaac Asimov eBooks will also have a dramatic impact on the epublishing industry because it will significantly increase the number of people who read eBooks. Isaac Asimov's millions of fans have been waiting for this."

Isaac Asimov, who died in 1992, was awarded the special lifetime Grand Master of Science Fiction award in 1987 and is considered one of the greatest science fiction authors ever. His Foundation series was awarded the Best All-Time Novel Series Hugo Award in 1966. Two of the Asimov eBooks that will appear at Fictionwise are "Foundation" short stories.

Gardner Dozois, the long-time editor of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and an 11-time Hugo winning editor and author wrote: "Isaac Asimov was always the most forward-looking of science fiction writers, always with an eye on the future and a deep understanding of the changes that it would bring, and it's highly appropriate that his stories are now being made available for the first time in the most futuristic and forward-looking of mediums, as eBooks being sold over the internet. I'm sure it would have pleased Isaac, and tickled him, too, that his stories were now being widely disseminated to new audiences around the world who might never have had the opportunity to encounter them before, and via a technology that didn't even exist when Isaac was a young writer selling his first stories to ASTOUNDING. There's a very Asimovian ring to that: change inevitably comes, technologies change and whole new heretofore undreamed-of technologies develop, and for the most part, those changes are benign, changes for the better that help to make the mass of humankind more civilized and better-informed, to spread knowledge as widely as it CAN be spread, always one of Isaac's major goals. Yes, Isaac would be pleased. The only down side is that he didn't live to see it. But he still lives on in these stories, which will now be entertaining new readers in new markets across the globe, thanks to Fictionwise."

The first two Asimov stories now available as eBooks are "Robot Dreams" and "Cleon the Emperor." "Robot Dreams" was nominated for the Best Short Story for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. It won the 1987 Locus Poll Award for Best Short Story as well as the 1987 Asimov's Reader Poll for Best Short Story.

"Cleon the Emperor" is a Foundation story that appeared in the April 1992 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. In the story, a fifty-year-old Hari Seldon is first minister for Emperor Cleon I. Hari Seldon's work in "psychohistory" is a key element in all Foundation stories.

The other Asimov works that will become available at Fictionwise will be announced over the next several weeks.

"Many of these Asimov short works have been nominated or won major awards," said Stephen Pendergrast, co-publisher. "But to read them, you would need to buy various anthologies, some of which are hard to find. These eBooks give Asimov fans a fast and easy way to directly purchase his great short fiction."

About Fictionwise.com

Fictionwise.com is a leading independent eBook publisher and distributor. The company publishes award-winning and high-quality fiction eBooks by top authors in multiple formats, including Palm (for Palm, Visor and Win CE), Adobe Acrobat, Rocket/REB1100, Microsoft Reader (Pocket PC and PCs), and Franklin eBookMan. Fictionwise authors include Larry Niven, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Nancy Kress, Damon Knight, Gregory Benford, Mike Resnick, James Patrick Kelly, Pamela Sargent, Kate Wilhelm, and many others. Fictionwise also distributes eBooks by other high-quality publishers. It is believed that Fictionwise.com has the largest eBook collection of major award-winning and nominated science fiction stories on the Internet.

Contact: Scott Pendergrast, pr@fictionwise.com, 973-701-6770