01.22.08
Japanese Cell Phone Novel Craze
Of last year’s Top 10 best-selling novels in Japan, half were originally written as cell phone novels.
The country that gave us the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, is thought to have started the cell phone novel genre in early ’00’s.
Imagine reading, let alone writing — with your thumb! — an entire novel on a cell phone. Granted, most cell phone novels are shorter than traditional ones — Wikipedia says the average chapter in a Japanese cell phone novel is about 70 words.
I hope that some of these will eventually be translated into English.
Link (to “Thumbs Race As Japan’s Bestsellers Go Cellular” on NY Times website)
Link (to “Mobile Phone Novels” on Wikipedia)
And just for fun, here’s what claims to be Indian’s first SMS (text message) novel. It is written in SMS style and allows readers to have input into the direction of the story: Link (to Cloak Room — India’s first SMS novel)
Lee Friend said,
March 11, 2008 at 10:16 pm
It’ll never replace the pen and notepad
Cell Phone Novels Spark Interest « Spiddlement said,
August 25, 2008 at 12:09 am
[...] Our post about Japanese Cell Phone novels was one of our highest read posts of all time, and continues to get plenty of hits every day. [...]
Cheryl Kaye Tardif said,
October 19, 2008 at 8:32 am
I’m a Canadian author who’s taking cell phone novels to a whole new level. I’m not only writing my next novel on the new iPhone 3G (using the Notes app), I have a character in the novel who uses an iPhone.
I’m an established author with 3 bestsellers available, a 4th with my agent in New York and a fifth nearly finished. Then I’ll be able to focus on ‘Finding Bliss’, the first novel written on an iPhone 3G using Notes.
My novel will be written in my own style, not in cell phone lingo. It won’t read the same way as the Japanese cell phone novels; it’ll be more current.
I expect that Finding Bliss will come out in book form and hopefully e-book as well. I’d also like to see it as a downloadable application on the iPhone and any other cell phone.
My story has been in the news in Canada a lot this past week–TV, radio, newspapers and online. I’m looking forward to doing something different and exciting.
Read more about Finding Bliss.
P.S. I am always open to interviews.
~Cheryl Kaye Tardif,
bestselling author of Whale Song, The River and Divine Intervention
http://www.cherylktardif.com