FatBrain Launches MightyWords

Posted on March 17, 2000

MightyWords has unveiled its new digital marketplace for written content. MightyWords allows users read, write, buy and sell written content, including essays, short stories, condensed books, serialized pieces, updated chapters, movie scripts, speeches and additional works.

MightyWords, a subsidiary of Fatbrain.com, was launched to take advantage of the mass market opportunities presented by Fatbrain.com's eMatter digital publishing initiative introduced last August. Fatbrain.com currently is seeking private-equity funding for the new venture, which will be operated as a separate business. The new structure will allow Fatbrain.com to continue its focus on core business-to-business opportunities.

``We believe MightyWords has a chance to touch the hearts and minds of the nation,'' said Chris MacAskill, CEO of MightyWords and Fatbrain.com. ``By creating the first digital marketplace to read, write, buy and sell ideas, MightyWords will unleash a wealth of written content and will create a powerful distribution channel that will significantly affect the publishing world.''

To launch the new website, MightyWords created American Perspectives, a series of essays, explorations and insights which discuss what the Bill of Rights mean to people today. American Perspectives is available as a free downloadable on the website. Contributing authors include Jonathan Kellerman, Pete Hamill, Peggy Noonan, Caroline Kennedy, Ellen Alderman, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Whoopi Goldberg, Newt Gingrich, Coretta Scott King, Sally Ride and Peter Jennings. MightyWords also announced the American Perspectives Writing Competition, offering two grand prizes of $15,000. Information on the competition can be found on the website.

John Logan, chairman and co-founder of Aberdeen Group, said, ``MightyWords represents one of those rare and unique shifts in the marketplace enabled by the Internet, much like happened with eBay. MightyWords offers new revenue streams for publishers, new distribution channels for authors, and best of all, a large marketplace for written content for professionals and the mass market alike, with a unique and powerful digital delivery mechanism. This is a true revolution in publishing.''

MightyWords provides a means for writers to distribute work at their own price, and to earn up to 50 percent royalties on each copy sold. To publish at MightyWords, an author logs onto the website, sets up a personal account and enters information regarding the piece of work, including a title, author bio and a detailed summary. The author then classifies the work by subject and sets an appropriate price. The MightyWords site instructs the author through steps to upload the work in one of the following formats: text, PDF, Microsoft Word or Postscript. Authors may then monitor traffic and purchases or change the price of their by checking their online author account. MightyWords also provides electronic publishing options for publishers and agents.