Handmark is partnering with Fictionwise to expand its eBook store called PDABookstore.com.

Handmark acquired PDABookstore.com back in June of last year. eBooks can be read on a range of mobile devices, including Palm OS and Windows Mobile PDAs and smartphones.

The site, which is now maintained by Fictionwise for Handmark, will add 100 to 200 new titles each week. At the start of the agreement, PDABookstore.com has over 18,000 titles, including the largest selection of award winning science fiction short stories available on the Internet.

According to Handmark, PDABookstore.com sells both unencrypted multiformat and encrypted secure formats. Unencrypted formats include Adobe Acrobat PDF, Mobipocket, Palm Doc, iSilo, Microsoft Reader, Franklin eBookman, Hiebook, and Rocket (REB/1100). Encrypted formats include Microsoft Reader, Palm Reader, Mobipocket, and Adobe Reader 6.0.1.

The deal with Fictionwise greatly expands Handmark's eBook offerings. According to Handmark VP Douglas Edwards, “our goal is to make ebooks easy to access for every mobile user regardless of their choice of device or reader software. Our relationship with Fictionwise vastly expands the inventory of available titles at our PDABookstore.com website. It is much more content; it’s much easier to access, and it’s all available right now from our online store.”

Last Fall, the Open eBook Forum, the electronic publishing industry's trade and standards organization, reported that eBook sales revenues were up by 30% and unit sales up by 40% over the same period in 2002. This compared to an annual growth rate of about 5% in traditional print publishing.