12.10.10 - Graeme Neill - The Bookseller
The prize had been funded by the Arts Council since 2005 but funding was for set time period. Orange said the decision to drop the award was completely independent of Arts Council funding.
The mobile company has already soft-launched an Orange Book Club where customers can download a range of 17,000 titles onto their mobile phone as an audio or e-book, via the Orange World application. Around Christmas this will also become a standalone website, which will promote writers as well as sell books. The site will also host the relaunched new writers campaign in the first quarter of next year. One author will be highlighted per month with Orange.
The Orange Award for New Writers launched in 2005 in partnership with the Arts Council, which awarded £10,000 to six authors to help them in the development of their careers. A spokesman for the Arts Council said the bursary, through its Grants for the Arts scheme, was for a set time period but Orange could apply for fresh funding for its new campaign.
Stuart Jackson, director of corporate communications at Orange, said: "2011 represents an exciting year in the evolution of the Orange Prize for Fiction, as we move Britain’s most famous and unique arts sponsorship into the digital world, offering literary fans further opportunities to engage with the books and authors they love. Whether that’s through the new Facebook site or the Orange Book Club, followers of the Orange Prize will now be able to access inspirational stories from exceptional writers wherever they are, whenever they want."
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