Today I am very excited to announce that Katie.com will be re-released and re-named A Girl’s Life Online. From the beginning, I hoped that Penguin and Katie Jones would be able to resolve this issue. I never believed that I had any right to the name Katie.com as a website but simply viewed it to be the name of my book. That being said, I never wanted anyone to experience unwanted emails or traffic on the Internet. As someone who has been abused, I would certainly not wish to cause anybody pain. Therefore, I sincerely apologize to Katie Jones for any suffering she may have endured.

Additionally, please also understand that while I have worked with Parry Aftab, she is not my lawyer, and I never asked anyone to speak with Ms. Jones about her website. I hope that the book’s title change and my apologies to Ms. Jones will resolve this issue. For more information, please read the press release below.

Plume Re-titles Book by Katie Tarbox A Girl’s Life Online

In an effort to avoid an association between the book originally titled Katie.com and the website Katie.com, Plume and the author decide to make this title change.

New York, New York, August 6, 2004 … In 2000, Dutton published a hardcover book called Katie.com by Katie Tarbox, an eye-opening account of one teenager's descent into the seductive world of the Internet. After the book was released into the market, it was brought to Dutton’s attention that a website of the same name existed on the Internet. The fact that the book, Katie.com, and the website shared the same name was purely coincidental. In an effort to avoid any association between the book and the site, when Plume issued the book in trade paperback in 2001, it printed on the copyright page that the author of Katie.com and events described in the book have no connection whatsoever with the website domain owner Katie Jones or her e-mail address.

Trena Keating, Editor-in-chief of Plume, said, “We have made every effort to clarify the fact that Plume’s book, Katie.com, and the website, Katie.com, are not in any way associated with one another. In addition, it was erroneously reported recently that Plume had asked its attorney to attempt to buy the web site Katie.com from domain owner Katie Jones. This is absolutely not true. Ms. Jones confirms this point in a message currently posted on her web site.

“We are not working in association with author Katie Tarbox or any other individual in an attempt to assume ownership of the domain name address www.katie.com. Of course, the personal views of the author are hers and do not represent Plume in any way.

“Going forward, Plume and the author have decided to re-title this book A Girl’s Life Online. This is an important book about predatory pedophiles on the Internet and how we can protect our children. We changed the title to keep focus on this issue. The newly titled book will be released next month. We have always taken this situation very seriously. And we hope that by making this title change, it will demonstrate just how dedicated Plume is to clarifying this matter.”

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Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children’s trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin Books, The Penguin Press, Philomel, Plume, Puffin, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others. The Penguin Group (http://www.penguin.com) is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.

Contact: Brant Janeway, 212-366-2230