Barnes & Noble Digital Launches With Dean Koontz Ebook

Posted on September 13, 2001

Barnes & Noble.com has started publishing ebooks through Barnes & Noble Digital, its publishing imprint. In launching a publishing imprint Barnes & Noble.com is competing with the books it sells from other publishers on its ecommerce website. Barnes & Noble.com's first exclusive ebook is The Book Of Counted Sorrows by bestselling author Dean Koontz.

For years, in many of his bestselling novels, Koontz has been citing lines of verse from an elusive book of poetry called The Book of Counted Sorrows. The book quickly became a legend to Koontz fans and the source of the book has mystified readers for years. Now Koontz has published the history of The Book of Counted Sorrows as an ebook available through Barnes & Noble Digital. Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide will feature in-store displays and promotions of the ebook, as well as many of other Dean Koontz titles.

``I had great fun writing this ebook,'' said Dean Koontz. ``I hope my readers will have at least as much fun with it as I did.''

``By publishing The Book of Counted Sorrows in ebook format we are able to bring this long-awaited, original work from Dean Koontz to millions of his fans,'' said Michael Fragnito, publisher of Barnes & Noble Digital. ``This is the first time an ebook is getting nationwide retail store promotion, with displays in every Barnes & Noble store where Dean Koontz' entire backlist is displayed.''

When best-selling author Dean Koontz was a senior in college, he won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition. He's been writing ever since. His books have been published in 32 languages and worldwide sales are over 215 million copies. Seven of his novels have risen to #1 on The New York Times' hardcover best-seller list (Lightning, Midnight, Cold Fire, Hideaway, Dragon Tears, Intensity, and Sole Survivor), and eleven of his books have risen to #1 in paperback. Dean Koontz and his wife, Gerda, live in Newport Beach, CA.