More intrigue in publishing with the iPad's coming-out party in England...Some previously committed publishers to Apple delayed final acceptance until the last minute! Talk about a last minute prom date...
Four big English publishers finally signed with the iPad agency pricing model and had ebooks in the Apple iBookStore today at the iPad overseas launch...
This report from TheBookSeller.com by Catherine Neilan:
Hachette UK, Penguin, HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan are the only British publishers to have inked deals with Apple, with e-books produced by all companies appearing on the iBookStore this morning (28th) and available to UK book buyers.
The four represent five of the original global publishers who signed with Apple before its US launch in April—only Simon & Schuster is currently missing. Between them, they account for roughly 36% of the UK books market.
Man Booker-winner Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate), David Mitchell's number one The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Sceptre) and Stephen Gately's The Tree of Seasons are available to buy with prices ranging from £11.99 to £9.99 for hardbacks and £6.99 to £3.99 for paperbacks.
Prices are in the main more expensive than the equivalent print versions available on Amazon.co.u. For example, the paperback of Wolf Hall is £3.60 on Amazon, but £6.99 on the iBookStore. Thousand Autumns... is £11.99 via Apple, but Amazon is charging £9.41 for the hardback.
However, readers can download more than 100 pages of Wolf Hall for free, with an option to buy it while reading the sample. Nearly 100 pages of Mitchell's novel can also be downloaded for free.
Tony Parsons, Jeremy Clarkson, Chris Evans and Frankie Boyle are all among other authors appearing on the virtual bookshelf. Currently, Evans' memoir It's Not What You Think is number one.
Freelance writer Ben Johncock, who already owns an iPad, said: "There is a huge selection on here, with titles from all the genres - there is a really good sample of work available." He added: "I was a bit worred there would be nothing on here but there is actually quite a bit."
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