Italian translation of Parma Endorion: Essays on Middle-earth, 3rd edition, has been published as free eBook.

Houston, TX — March 30, 2005 — Parma Endorion: Essays on Middle-earth, 3rd edition, has been translated into Italian and published as free eBook. With more than 800,000 downloads since its release on January 5, 2002, the English language edition of Parma Endorion remains one of the most popular eBooks of all time.

Original expections for Parma Endorion projected downloads in the 50,000 range for the entire first year. "We surpassed 50,000 downloads in four months," author Michael Martinez says. "I'm as pleased as I can be that these eBooks have done so well," says editor Matt Tinaglia. Tinaglia combined Martinez' widely recognized Parma Endorion essays, which were originally published as a Web book, with select artwork from fans Rich Sullivan and Anke Eissmann (http://anke.edoras-art.de/).

Hundreds of fan art examples were considered for inclusion in the eBook, but only a handful of artists were invited to participate. Artists Sullivan and Eissmann accepted the invitation.

The English and Spanish language editions of the Parma Endorion eBook has been distributed for free through Free-eBooks.Net (http://www.free-ebooks.net/) and MERP.Com (http://www.merp.com). Other eBook distribution channels have picked up the Parma Endorion title as well. The new Italian edition begins its distribution at MERP.Com.

Lead translator Roberto Fontana brought the project to fruition after more than a year's labor. He approached author Michael Martinez in December 2003 about translating the eBook into Italian for members of his forum at GranBurrone (http://www.Granburrone.com/). "GranBurrone" is the Italian name for Rivendell, the location of the wisest Elves in Middle-earth in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Michael Martinez (http://www.michael-martinez.com/) is the author of Understanding Middle-earth, published by Vivisphere, and Visualizing Middle-earth, published through Xlibris Corp. He is also a noted Internet researcher specializing in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. He has written more than 100 essays on Tolkien and Middle-earth for Suite101.com and MERP.Com and his work has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Greek, and Polish. Several commercial enterprises have also contracted the author for consulting services relating to Middle-earth product lines.

Parma Endorion, in both English and Spanish, is available in Adobe Acrobat Reader (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html) format at Free-eBooks.Net (http://www.free-ebooks.net/fan_fiction.html). Parma Endorion in English and Italian is available in Adobe Acrobat Reader format at MERP.Com (http://www.merp.com/). Adobe Acrobat Reader is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Free-eBooks.Net is a member of the eBooks'n'Bytes network (http://www.ebooksnbytes.com/).