Life for a mobile content start-up can be tough at the best of times, but who better to have on your side in those tricky investor meetings than SAS hero Andy McNab?

Well, for mobile book specialist GoSpoken that's actually a reality. You see McNab - author of several novels including the seminal BravoTwoZero - is one of its partners.

GoSpoken made a splash last week with news that it would be making clips from the books selected for this year’s Man Booker Prize available on mobile.

It's not the first company to take a stab at mobile literature. In theory, audiobooks should work great on mobile, just like they do (or is that did?) on tape/CD and, latterly, as iTunes downloads.

Amazon recently added 5,000 more books to its Kindle e-reader library thanks to a deal struck with publisher Simon & Schuster. The US-only device is in fact mobile-powered, with downloads powered by Qualcomm over an EV-DO network.

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Earlier this year Mills & Boon inked a deal with ICUE to place its books in the strong masculine arms of mobile, while Macmillan Publishing says it will make 600 books available via mobile by the end of this year, the Japanese are having fun with mobile picture books and Harper Collins is ramping D2C activity.

Crucially though, none have McNab on their side, putting them at a massive disadvantage when it comes to cutting on-deck content deals with operators. You can picture the scene now...

Operator content exec: "We'd like to offer you a 20 per cent revenue share."
McNab [sitting in shadow, voiced by an actor]: "We were thinking more like 90 per cent."
Operator exec [shifting uneasily in seat]: "I'm afraid 25 per cent is the best I can do."
McNab [reaches for inside jacket pocket]: "90 per cent."
Operator exec [sweating profusely]: "100 per cent! 100 per cent! Take it all!"

But think about it. It's not just at the negotiating table that McNab's skills of persuasion would come in handy. Skeptical journos asking tough questions at a press conference? Consider them gone. Not enough repeat customers? A quick visit from the Nabster would put 'em straight.

Ex-Army types often carve lucrative careers in the private sector. What this industry needs is a team of SAS-trained content enforcers. Watch those data ARPUs skyrocket.