EBookNet Returns As eBookWeb

When eBookNet, the long-running e-book information site, was shut down earlier this year, the wired community was in danger of losing one of the Web's best digital book resources. But the site proved so popular with readers and industry players alike that the creators are relaunching it on July 4 as eBookWeb.org, a not-for-profit e-book information site.

"We're not setting it up as a profit machine," said co-founder Glenn Sanders. "We're setting it up to help build the industry." When Sanders founded eBookNet in 1998, digital book readers had just started to come onto the market; there was little content available and no general Web site for e-books.

In 2000, Gemstar-TV Guide became the parent company of eBookNet after Gemstar acquired NuvoMedia, the original developer of the Rocket eBook reader and eBookNet's original sponsor. Gemstar, which is vigorously promoting its own proprietary e-book reader, decided to fold eBookNet earlier this year. Wade Roush, co-founder, along with Sanders, of eBookNet and a former editor at Science magazine, told PW that Gemstar was never completely comfortable in the role of marketing its own readers while supporting objective reporting on the industry.

EBookWeb will now operate under the umbrella of a nonprofit foundation funded by Rolltronics, an electronics company that is developing a manufacturing process for a thin, flexible screen display. EBookWeb will again feature reviews and reporting on the industry and the new arrangement will allow the site to function independently of its sponsors. "We want to make sure we structure it in a way that doesn't detract from our credibility," Sanders said. Companies are invited to sponsor eBookWeb through the Rolltronics Foundation, which takes no position on any particular product or platform. "We have a broad spectrum of support, from publishers to software, digital rights management and hardware companies, and even sales sites," Sanders said.

EBookWeb will offer news, opinions, newsletters, resources and community areas; Roush will serve as the site's editor-in-chief. Sanders will again solicit publishers and other industry players to participate in interactive Web forums. EBookWeb will largely be promoted through guerrilla, word-of-mouth and viral marketing. Sanders noted that eBookNet had sent hundreds of visitors to sales sites from its buyer's guide.

"A number of companies want to form a collaborative effort to do co-branding, cross-marketing and syndication," said Sanders, who so far has spent $50,000 developing eBookWeb, which has a three-person staff in Menlo Park, Calif. "We're really hoping to help bring e-books into the mainstream," added Sanders.