Romancing the phone

Mills and Boon novels are to be offered for users to download to their mobile phone to combat the “embarrassment factor” of carrying around the books. From The Times article:

“Penguin, Random House and HarperCollins have all signed up with ICUE, a British company offering the capability to transfer books into mobile phone-friendly content. None, however, has pursued the idea with as much vigour as the company founded in 1908 by Gerald Mills and Charles Boon.

Our Japanese operation has had great success selling our books in mobile-phone format,” Ms Byrne said. “Japan is normally 18 months ahead of the UK. They are finding that it’s women who like reading on phones and romantic fiction that’s rising to the top.”