Iain Banks’s latest novel, Transition, is to become the first newly published book to be serialised internationally on iTunes.

Publisher Little, Brown Book Group has agreed a deal with Apple to make an abridged audio version of the novel available as a free podcast.

The first podcast will go live on September 3 when the novel is published. A further 22 episodes, each 15 minutes long, will be released on iTunes in Britain and America every Thursday and Saturday for 12 weeks.

The serialisation will be promoted in both the UK and the US, where the title is to be published by Orbit, as well as on the Iain Banks website, which is to be relaunched in September with a focus on building a community for fans. Campaigns are also planned around the paperback publication next spring.

According to the publisher, the iTunes promotion is about “trying something new and ground-breaking” to commemorate 25 years since Banks’s debut novel, The Wasp Factory. They said each podcast would have a “cliffhanger” ending.

The online serialisation deal is an unusual move for the 55-year-old author from Fife, a self-confessed technophobe. He is known to be reluctant to use the internet and e-mail and has sold his expensive car collection and given up flying to boost his green credentials.

“I had barely caught up with the latter half of the 20th century when here I am being ensnarled by gizmology from the 21st. I am left breathless by the pace of technology,” said Banks.

Sarah Shrubb, editorial director of Little, Brown UK’s digital imprint Hachette Digital, said: “This is the first time an audio has been serialised in this way, and we’re very excited to be doing something so groundbreaking.

“Iain Banks is one of Little, Brown’s biggest authors, and we’re absolutely delighted to be promoting him through this cutting-edge campaign.”

Users of iTunes can already pay to download audio books on to MP3 players but this is the first time a new release is being made instantly available in both the UK and US at no cost.

Banks, who writes both mainstream and science fiction, has described Transition as a crossover between the two genres. It features an all-powerful organisation known as the Concern, and is set between the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the Twin Towers.

Authors and publishers are increasingly making use of online technology to promote their work as the demand for audio and e-books expands.

Scott Sigler, an American writer, became the first author to release a podcast-only novel in 2005. Available as a free downloadable 22-episode podcast, Earthcore first attracted a few hundred listeners. That audience quickly grew to several thousand, and by the time Sigler posted two follow-up novels his fan base had grown to 30,000.

Fantasy writer Tee Morris was one of the first authors, in 2002, to prove that giving your novel away for free in audio format could actually boost sales.

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