Books from Random House UK – including works by John Grisham, James Patterson and Frederick Forsyth – are now available in Apple’s UK iBook service for the iPad and iPhone.
The titles are being promoted on the front of the iBookstore as “Bestselling authors just added’ and ‘Bestselling books just added”.
In a statement issued after we first reported the story, a spokesman for Random House confirmed the group “is to make its full UK catalogue of ebooks available for the first time on Apple’s iBookstore in the UK.”
The spokesperson added: “The move is part of our mission to make our authors’ books available to as many readers as possible in whichever format they prefer. RHG titles will be available from today (Tuesday, May 10th).”
Sales through the iBookstore will use the agency pricing model which sees publishers set the retail price of ebooks and pay a commission to the retailer and is a condition of Apple listing titles.
Asked whether the company was planning to extend agency pricing to other retailers such as Amazon’s Kindle store, the company said: “We continue to evaluate all our options and are in continuing conversations with all etailers as we strive to evolve our strategy in the best interests both of our authors and consumers.
“Our underlying goal is to make our books as widely available as possible.”
Earlier this month the publishing giant revealed it had sold over 2m ebooks in the UK.
In March the US division of Random House joined iBooks just days before the launch of the iPad 2.
The arrival of Random House in iBooks will help increase the attractiveness of the store which has been disadvantaged by not being able to offer some of the biggest names in contemporary fiction.