Barnes & Noble Enters E-Book Arena

Barnes & Noble (New York) has paid $15.7 million in cash for Fictionwise, an online electronic book retailer with a catalog of about 60,000 titles.

“The market hasn’t been that developed to date,” William Lynch, president of bn.com, told The New York Times. “We think it’s a big growth area going forward.”

While overall book sales were flat or falling last year, E-book sales more than tripled.

Steve and Scott Pendergrast founded Fictionwise nine years ago with two independent brands, fictionwise.com and eReader.com. Titles bought on either of these sites can be read on the Apple iPhone, personal computers and other smartphones. Some titles on fictionwise.com can also be read on the Sony Reader.

Ceo Scott Pendergrast told The Times that the company believes that Barnes & Noble will provide “more resources, more contacts with publishers, more content and give us the power to compete in this market as it explodes across the U.S. and the world.”