Press Release

'Showtime' for AlexLit eBook Author and Franklin eBookMan

NEW YORK, June 26, 2001 -- Electronic book publisher Alexandria Digital Literature, Inc. (AlexLit) announced "It's Showtime for author Bruce Holland Rogers." Showtime Networks Original Pictures premieres the television adaptation of Rogers' story, "Lifeboat on a Burning Sea" June 29, at 8 p.m. Renamed "The Other Side," it's part of Showtime's trilogy "On The Edge."

AlexLit, a growing, privately held company, is the exclusive eBook publisher for Rogers' award-winning story. The Company has partnered with Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc. (Amex: FEP - news), in a major promotion for the newly launched and versatile Franklin eBookMan reader. This promotion is the first phase of a broader relationship between Franklin and AlexLit.

The two companies recently entered into an agreement under which AlexLit will use Franklin's Content Developers' Kit for eBookMan to convert their full library of over 700 eBooks into Franklin's tagged format for reading on eBookMan. The titles will be available for sale and download from http://www.franklin.com/ this summer.

"While we signed our agreement with AlexLit some time ago, we've been waiting for the upcoming Showtime event to rally the news around," said Barry Lipsky, president and CEO, Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc. "We are extremely excited that the kickoff to our alliance with AlexLit will bring our eBookMan readers content from an award-winning author."

Franklin will provide free downloads of "Lifeboat" to eBookMan users at PC Expo in New York, June 26 to 28. eBookMan users can download the title for free from Franklin's website through July 1. This promotion coincides with Showtime's premiere of "The Other Side." Other works by Rogers are available for purchase from Franklin and AlexLit websites.

The prolific Rogers received a Nebula Award in 1997 for "Lifeboat." His outstanding works are some of the award winners found in AlexLit's catalog. AlexLit was the official e-publisher of the 2000 Science Fiction Achievement Award for short fiction nominees.

"We're very excited for Bruce Holland Rogers and the Showtime movie," said AlexLit CEO, Dave Howell. "It underscores the value of eBooks. Although Bruce's work is consistently high quality, many of his titles aren't in print. Showtime's adaptation introduces a new audience to his many stories, and they are only available at AlexLit.com and affiliated websites."

About eBookMan

eBookMan® is a multimedia content player offering mass-market audiences a robust feature set and an optimal display screen at an affordable price. All three eBookMan® models have a large 240 x 200 pixel LCD that displays 87 percent more information than a typical handheld. Each model gives consumers a vehicle to download thousands of electronic books, audio books and musical works, to synchronize between users' personal information manager programs and Microsoft® Outlook®, to record and play voice memos and to write notes easily with natural handwriting recognition. Franklin's open but secure architecture also enables publishers and developers to offer more titles in a protected environment.

The entry model, EBM-900, with a suggested retail price of $129.95, includes a microphone, speaker, headphone jack, multimedia memory card for memory expansion, a USB port and 8 MB of built-in memory. The EBM-901, with a suggested retail price of $179.95, adds a backlit, polarized display and additional free books. The flagship model, the EBM-911, suggested to retail for $229.95, offers 16MB of memory and even more free content.

eBookMan won the eBook Technology Award from the International eBook Award Foundation at the Frankford Book Fair in October 2000.

About Franklin

Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc. (Amex: FEP - news), the worldwide market leader in handheld electronic books, is the designer and distributor of the award winning multimedia eBookMan® platform. The Company is the exclusive producer and distributor of the ROLODEX® Electronics brand of personal information management products. Franklin has sold more than 25,000,000 electronic books and currently publishes more than 200 titles, including dictionaries and bilingual dictionaries; encyclopedias; Bibles; entertainment titles; education and tutorial publications; and medical reference works. Franklin products, available in sixteen languages, are sold in 45,000 retail outlets worldwide, through catalogs and on line at franklin.com . The Company has sales and distribution subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Benelux countries, Canada, Australia and Mexico, and production management offices in Tokyo and Hong Kong. ROLODEX® is a registered trademark of Berol Corporation, a subsidiary of Newell Rubbermaid, Inc.

About Alexandria Digital Literature, Inc. (AlexLit)

Alexandria Digital Literature, Inc. is the fiction-publishing arm of Seattle Book Company. The parent Company is a Seattle-based provider of infrastructure for the publishing industry, booksellers and corporations. The Company builds, deploys and manages electronic bookstores for business customers as an Application Service Provider (ASP). It also publishes downloadable electronic book software (eBooks) for distribution and sales to leading and customized eBookstores. Intellectual property includes exclusive, open-system technology and e-publishing rights. It has two eBookstores, www.AlexLit.com and http://www.tale.com/ .