SAN FRANCISCO, CA - October 20, 1999 - NetRead, Inc - The Publishing Portal(TM) - today announced it launched its Web site at www.netread.com. The company seeks to make the tangled business of publishing easier for those involved in publishing and more accessible to those who are not - but would like to be.

The company was founded by Pete Alcorn, a veteran of educational publishing, and Kent Lindstrom, a Senior Manager at Deloitte & Touche LLP. The NetRead project began at a book club started by Alcorn and a local San Francisco writer named Jason Flores-Williams. They met to discuss mostly philosophy and social texts, from Dante to Nietzsche, Sowell to Zinn. Flores-Williams' frustrations as a writer and Alcorn's knowledge of publishing led to discussions of recent developments in publishing. After Lindstrom penciled out the economics of a "publishing portal" in early 1999, they realized that they were looking at a vast opportunity. Alcorn and Lindstrom incorporated NetRead, and left their jobs to start NetRead. Flores-Williams remains dedicated to his writing.

NetRead's goal is simple: make it easier to publish books. The company provides free information, helps people and businesses connect, and offers services that make book publishing practical and accessible. NetRead believes that many types of books, which have been blocked from the market by traditional economic and practical factors, will soon emerge. NetRead will assist in this evolution.

NetRead supports all forms and formats of book publishing, from print to Braille, audio to ebooks. For now, all of NetRead's services are free. Ultimately, NetRead will offer a service for distributing books in multiple formats through a variety of channels.