As an SAS soldier, Andy McNab was used to being thrust into unknown, hostile territory to carry out special operations. Now the author-turned-businessman has set his sights on a new terrain: the burgeoning e-book market. The author of Bravo Two Zero plans to take on heavyweights such as Amazon and Sony to win a slice of the action.

GoSpoken, the audio book company Mr McNab co-founded in 2007, will announce tomorrow that it has struck a deal with Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry, to supply e-books for its smartphones. Under a deal between RIM, Vodafone and GoSpoken, a GoSpoken e-reader application will be launched for BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Bold handsets for Vodafone customers in the UK. GoSpoken expects to roll the service out to other networks and handset makers soon.

BlackBerry users who click on the GoSpoken icon will be directed to a library of audio and e-books, which can be downloaded straight to their mobiles. Audio books take a couple of minutes to download and cost between £5 and £15, while e-books sell in line with the recommended retail price for paperbacks and can be downloaded in seconds.

Downloads of both audio books and e-books for mobiles have steadily increased in the past few months, despite the downturn, according to GoSpoken. E-books account for 25 per cent of GoSpoken’s revenues, only two months after it introduced them in December. “The e-book market is a growing phenomenon. We’ve seen the market take off in the last six months or so with electronic readers like Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s e-reader. There are 50 million BlackBerrys, so RIM is an ideal company for us to tie up with,” a spokeswoman said. The deal should help RIM to broaden the appeal of the BlackBerry, moving it out of suits and into handbags and jean pockets. For Vodafone, e-books and audio books could represent a new source of revenue when falling voice and text prices and regulatory pressure are squeezing profits.

GoSpoken is talking to Nokia about providing the service on their phones, she said. The company has already signed content deals with several book publishers, including Penguin, Random House and HarperCollins. Many titles are already available as audio books to Vodafone and 3 customers in the UK.

GoSpoken, a private company, has received millions in backing from Lord Ashcroft, the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and millionaire businessman, in November last year. GoSpoken has yet to make a profit but Mr McNab believes that the audio and e-book market will continue to grow. “With my evangelical head I think yes, this is going to be huge,” he said, “but the practical head says wait and see how it goes.”

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