Phone Fever

Writing fiction to phone is now a common occurance, with half of Japan's top 10 fiction books list in the first six months of 2007 being e-books, each selling an average of 400,000 copies. http://www.smh.com.au/news/mobiles--handhelds/in-japan-cellular-storytelling-is-all-the-rage/2007/12/03/1196530522543.html


From these figures, President of Goma Books, Masayoshi Yoshino, believes this to be ‘not simply a fad, but a new kind of culture.'

Last year Japan came out at the forefront of releasing books onto mobile phones. Japanese author Rin, (a pen name) is a best selling author in this genre. Rin's 'Moshimo Kimiga' (If You ...) is a 142-page teen romance, that she wrote on her mobile phone. She began the story when she was in junior high, but never really considered herself a novelist and has been surpised by the success her book has generated.

Her book's success is partly due to its user friendly ability to upload it from an internet site and have it downloaded onto a phone. It has sold over 420,000 since its released as book in January 2007.

Publishers are also making sales from the books in hardcopy. It is suggested that hardcopy sales are successful due to interaction between readers of the mobile phone story and the author. While reading the e-book readers are able to text the author and offer changes to the story. Buying the hardcopy is considered a momento of their own contribution.

So far the books have been aimed at younger audiences-particulary female- and use emoticons and language that has become common usage in the short hand type of the mobile phone. The stories include teen romance, sex, drugs, bullying, gang rape, pregnancy, miscarriages and sexually transmitted diseases.

Problems have arisen with academics pointing out the literary and educational issues of such texts. The lexicon of the mobile phone has meant short sentences and where the literary content suffers. Such academics argue that this coupled with the popular themes of the novels means the finer qualities of the literary style are lost.

However, it seems that critcs need to accept that this seems to be a popular means of accessing the printed word. For example, the bible is already available to be downloaded onto mobile phones. http://www.mobible.org/legacy/2003/ . It may be that issues such as content may need to be brought forth for broader discussion – keeping in mind the principles of free speech and what is already considered legal and appropriate in more conventional publications.

Personally, I find this an exciting time to be in where such surprising strides are made. And to this story I bring the Harry Potter argument to bear – Well, at least more people are reading.