News

MightyWords Titles to Be Offered at BN.com
Paul Hilts -- 11/6/00

MightyWords, the online seller of short original works, and Barnesandnoble.com have announced that effective immediately, BN.com will carry MightyWords's works in digitally downloadable and printable form. This is MightyWords' second such distribution agreement; the first was with Fatbrain, MW's original parent company.

Chris MacAskill, CEO of MightyWords, characterized the agreement as helping both companies develop their markets. "MightyWords authors will get the benefit of Barnesandnoble.com's extensive readership, especially in the general trade areas, where we're not strong right now," he told PW. "And Barnesandnoble.com gets the benefit of our audience in the technical and business areas."

According to MacAskill, "Business, technology and mind/body titles make up about 80% of our titles, with fiction and other nonfiction titles comprising only about 20%. Our bread is buttered by professional titles today, because at this stage it's still an early-adopter market. On barnesandnoble.com today, there are 120 titles, 85% original and exclusive. I suspect that as the market develops, and the reader devices are out there, those numbers will change, maybe even reverse completely."

As examples of the kind of content MightyWords is making available through BN.com is New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine's short business title, How to Build a Winning Team.


The books are downloadable in either Glassbook or Microsoft Reader format for handheld or desktop devices, and customers can print out the Glassbook version. The agreement marks MightyWords' first attempt to reach the handheld-device and print markets.