A Man Booker First
Free mobile downloads of shortlisted books
For four decades the Man Booker Prize has been at the forefront of all that's best in literary fiction. This year, for the first time in its history, the prize is embracing new technology with extracts from the shortlisted books being made immediately available upon the shortlist announcement via the latest mobile phone technology.
This is the first time that any book prize has used mobile technology to promote its shortlist. The Man Booker Prize has exclusively partnered with mobile site GoSpoken, launched this April at the London International Book Fair, to make the shortlist extracts available to download for free.
This year's shortlist will be announced on 9th September, at which point the public will be able to text MBP to 60300 in order to download a free extract either to read as text or listen to as audio. If the reader enjoys the extract, they can then use their mobile phone to either purchase a hard copy of the book, to be delivered directly to their door, or download the full audio version, if available. The cost will be added to the reader's mobile phone bill.
GoSpoken.com is a unique mobile platform which can be accessed by anybody with a mobile phone or Internet access. It allows you to search, try, buy and enjoy books in audio and text.
Bestselling author Andy McNab, a partner in GoSpoken, comments: "I'm a great fan of audiobooks and passionate about bringing them to a wider audience. The immediacy of the spoken word really transports you to another world through your headphones. GoSpoken will revolutionise audiobooks - being able to download them to your mobile, wherever you are, means you will never be bored again."
Jonathan Taylor, Chairman of The Booker Prize Foundation, comments: "After forty years making the headlines in the literary world, it is good that the Man Booker Prize is now also taking a lead in the world of new technology."
The extracts will also be available via: http://www.themanbookerprize.com/.
-ENDS-
For more information about GoSpoken please contact:
Rebecca Williams at GoSpoken
on 020 7749 5114 / 07525 688 615 or rebecca.williams@spokengroup.com
For more information about the Man Booker Prize please contact:
Jill Cotton/Katy MacMillan-Scott at Colman Getty
on 020 7631 2666 or firstname@colmangetty.co.uk
Notes to Editors
- The shortlist extracts are available from 9th September 2008. The text service is only available in the UK. For readers outside of the UK, all extracts will be available via http://www.gospoken.com/
- GoSpoken is a site dedicated to books with a particular focus on audiobooks for which it provides a quality content delivery platform. Mobile phone users who have a data plan can now visit http://www.gospoken.com/ via their handsets. The service is designed for High Speed Download Packet Access (HSDPA) phones, which offer download speeds similar to that of a PC. Recent tests show a first-time customer can download and pay for a three-hour audiobook in around four minutes, which will reduce further as mobile broadband becomes faster. GoSpoken is also compatible with 3G mobile phones, which download at a slightly slower rate. A full-length mobile audiobook will usually cost between £5 and £10.
- The Booker Prize for Fiction was first awarded in 1969, and Man Group plc was announced as the sponsor of the prize in April 2002, with a five year extension agreed in 2006. For a full history of the prize including previous winners, shortlisted authors and judges visit the website: http://www.themanbookerprize.com/. The site features the rules of entry, background information and breaking news and is the quickest way for the prize's worldwide audience to access information
- This year's Man Booker longlist consists of 13 books, the maximum number now prescribed by the revised rules of the prize. The shortlist for the prize will be announced on 9th September 2008
- 2008 is the 40th anniversary of the Booker Prize (now the Man Booker Prize) for Fiction. To mark the occasion, a range of events and initiatives have been taking place throughout the year.
- To coincide with the announcement of the 2008 Man Booker Prize shortlist on September 9th, the V&A Museum is hosting an exhibition telling the visual story of the prize over the years.
- The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape) won the Man Booker Prize 2007. It has sold 70,000 in hardback in the UK, 76,000 in the Irish Trade paperback and a total of 160,000 in paperback in the UK and Ireland. It has also sold 340,000 copies in the US
- The British Council is working towards the creation of an online collection of contemporary British literature and is in negotiation with publishers to include former winners of the Booker Prize and Man Booker Prize as e-books, which can be purchased. Arts and literary festivals across the UK have been joining in the celebrations by hosting anniversary events inspired by the Booker Prize. The Canterbury Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival and The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival are all holding events later in the year.
- Every year publishers are allowed to submit two books for the Man Booker Prize. Every former Booker Prize winner and any author who has appeared on the shortlist in the last ten years is also eligible
- The Advisory Committee, which advises on any changes to the rules and on the selection of the judges, represents all sides of the book world. Its members are: Ion Trewin (Literary Director, Man Booker Prizes); Richard Cable, publisher; Mark Chilton, Company Secretary, Booker Ltd; Peter Clarke, Chief Executive, Man Group plc; Jonathan Douglas, Director of the National Literacy Trust; Victoria Glendinning, writer; Basil Comely, BBC TV; Derek Johns, literary agent; Gerry Johnson, Managing Director, Waterstone's; Nigel Newton, publisher; Fiammetta Rocco, literary editor, The Economist (Man Booker International Prize administrator); Eve Smith (Company Secretary, the Booker Prize Foundation); Robert Topping, Topping & Company Booksellers and Erica Wagner, literary editor, The Times
- The Booker Prize Foundation is a registered charity (no 1090049) which, since 2002, has been responsible for the award of the prize. The trustees of the Booker Prize Foundation are former Chairman of Booker plc, Jonathan Taylor CBE (Chair); Lord Baker of Dorking CH; former Man Booker Prize administrator, Martyn Goff CBE; playwright and President of the Royal Literary Fund, Ronald Harwood CBE; former Chair of the British Council, Baroness Kennedy QC; writer, Baroness Neuberger DBE; MEP Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne; and former Finance Director of Rentokil plc, Christopher Pearce
- Man Group plc is a world-leading alternative investment management business. With a broad range of funds for institutional and private investors globally, it is known for its performance, innovative product design and investor service. Man manages over $78 billion and employs 1,600 people in 13 countries worldwide.
The original business was founded in 1783. Today the parent company, Man Group plc, is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It is ranked in the top 40 companies of the FTSE 100 Index with a market capitalisation of about $20 billion.
Man supports many awards, charities and initiatives around the world, including sponsorship of the Man Booker literary prizes and the Man Group International Climate Change Award. Further information can be found at http://www.mangroupplc.com/
- Booker is the UK's leading food wholesaler with over 170 branches nationwide. It serves over 350,000 independent businesses.
- The Booker Prize Archive was given on loan in 2003 to Oxford Brookes University where it is in the process of being catalogue
- Each year The Booker Prize Foundation pays for the production of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction shortlisted titles in Braille, Giant Print and Audio formats by the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB). The Foundation is also working with the Sound Archive of the British Library on its 'National Life Stories - Authors' Lives' project by funding archive interviews with the 2007 and 2008 shortlisted authors, and anticipates this will continue in future years
