From The Literary Platform: The Man Booker Prize has just unveiled its new iPhone app – a first for UK literary prizes. The app, created by award winning digital agency Vexed Digital, will be free to download and will offer access to the Man Booker Prize archive – offering a full chronological history of the prize including information about the judges and the longlist, shortlist and winning authors and books. App users will be able to access exclusive author interviews, video content and audio and text extracts from selected Man Booker Prize titles. Push notification functionality will let users know about...

From The Bookseller on Bloomsbury's earnings reports and future plans: The group plans to expand its online library service, Public Library Online, with a US site, an Australian site and others to be launched in different locations and languages; They are experiencing "unprecedented growth" in digital publishing; Highlights include the launching of the digital Berg Fashion Library and Bloomsbury Academic platforms; North America sales were up 2.3%, and were driven by backlist and digital performance....

This isn't scientific, but it certainly communicates the basic truth of the matter as of August 5. As of 4:30 pm Eastern time today, August 5, a US Kindle customer could have purchased the top 25 bestselling books in the US Kindle Store sales rankings for a grand total of $252.10. Over in the UK, at exactly the same time, a UK Kindle customer could have purchased the top 25 bestselling books in the UK Kindle Store sales rankings for a grand total of £99.13, which is the equivalent of $157.58 in US dollars. The books that make up the two lists, of...

From the Article: Forget those well-thumbed paperbacks with covers last laminated in the mid-1980s. Libraries, often chided for being outdated and remote, are going digital – with e-books arriving on numerous virtual library shelves. But the concept of freely available electronic books has raised hackles in parts of the book industry. Some retailers argue unlimited access could undermine e-book sales. Looming over the debate is the shadow of local authority budget cuts, which at worst will push some libraries towards closure. Bloomsbury, UK publisher of Harry Potter books, is at the...

According to The Booksellser, Hachett UK says that ebooks are about 8% of new title volumes sales in publication month. Year to date Hachette's ebook sales are 5 times what they were in 2009. Although this is still far off the figures quoted by Amazon, it seems likely the gap between digital and print is closing: in the first quarter of 2010, hardbacks accounted for 20.3% of the UK print market by volume, according to Nielsen. "As we see in the US, things are changing rapidly," said Walkley [of Hachette], adding he "certainly" believed e-books would outsell hardbacks in the UK....

From the Announcement: …a new report from the research community, compiled by the British Library, looks at the UK’s existing intellectual property framework – reflecting the challenges researchers face on a daily basis and highlighting a consensus across all sectors on the need for reform to meet the demands of a modernising world. Sourced directly from researchers this report presents a ‘grassroots view’ of the current copyright framework in the UK. Looking at the barriers they encounter on a daily basis, the contributors’ feedback not only highlights the obstructions to creativity but also puts forward...

It's located in Canterbury at the University of Kent's Templeman Library. It has a library, archive, and exhibition gallery, and is dedicated to the history of British cartooning over the last two hundred years. The BCA holds the artwork for more than 150,000 British editorial, socio-political, and pocket cartoons, supported by large collections of comic strips, newspaper cuttings, books and magazines. The collection of artwork dates back to 1904 and includes work by W.K. Hasleden, Will Dyson, Strube, David Low,Vicky, Emmwood, Michael Cummings, Ralph Steadman, Mel Calman, Nicholas Garland, Chris Riddell, Carl Giles, Martin Rowson, and Steve Bell, amongst many...

Here they are, according to the Bookseller: 1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Doubleday/Transworld) 2. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate) 3. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (Bantam Press) 4. Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster (Faber) 5. An Utterly Impartial History of Britain by John O'Farrell (Black Swan) 6. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Canongate) 7. Making Money by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday) 8. The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (Corgi) 9. Train to Trieste by Domnica Radulescu (Black Swan) 10. To Heaven by Water by Justin Cartwright (Bloomsbury) ...

The Inquirer is reporting that the Kindle has been cut in price to £180. In a rather arcane discussion of Kindle pricing the Inquirer says: The Kindle was first available for UK consumers in October 2009, and for that quarter and the next UK buyers had an exchange rate of about 60p to the dollar. That meant the then $259 Kindle was priced at a mere £155 in the UK. Despite this week's $70 price cut, the actual saving to the UK consumer, due to the pound having since declined, is only £23. Today the Kindle will cost £132. But on...

According to the Bookseller, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has said that VAT will not be applied to books and other printed materials. However, the top VAT rate will increase in 2011 from 17.5% to 20% and that means that the price of ebooks and audiobooks could increase....

That's what the Bookseller is reporting. HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan have consistently scored well, with Chris Evans' memoir, It's Not What You Think, priced £3.99, holding onto the top spot for nearly two weeks. It was knocked off on Wednesday morning by Peter James' £1.99 Quick Read Perfect Murder. The print a.s.p. of Evans' book is £5.37, while James' book is £1.98. Gordon Ramsay's Humble Pie (HarperCollins) is £1.99 on the iBookstore, where it is fourth, but has a print a.s.p. of £7.74. As The Bookseller went to press on Wednesday (9th June), the two publishers had six of the...

Reuters reports that Penguin and Amazon have come to an agreement allowing Penguin’s books to be sold for the Kindle once again. Penguin’s books had been absent since the April 1st agency pricing implementation deadline, a period of almost two months. The international iBookstore has launched—people in England who already own iPads can download the iBooks application and access the store as of May 26th, two days before the iPad’s official May 28th launch. However, at the moment only public-domain titles from Project Gutenberg are available—no commercial titles yet. The Bookseller reports negotiations with publishers are...