Cell phone novel
History
The first cell phone novel was ublished in Japan in 2003 by a Tokyo man in his mid-thirties who calls himself “Yoshi”. His first cell phone novel was called Deep Love, the story of a teenager engaged in “subsidized dating” (enjo kosai) in Tokyo and contracting AIDS. It became so popular that it was published as an actual book, with 2.6 million copies sold in Japan, then spun off into a television series, a manga, and a movie. The cell phone novel became a hit mainly through word of mouth and gradually started to gain traction in Taiwan, China, and South Korea among young adults. In Japan, several sites offer large prizes to authors (up to $100,000 US) and purchase the publishing rights to the novels.
The movement becomes popular also in Europe and now Africa. In Europe it started about 2007, promoted by single persons and providers such as cosmoblonde or Blackbetty Mobilmedia. Teenagers in South Africa have been downloading an m-novel – a specially-created story written just for mobile phones .
Reason for popularity
Although Japan was the original birthplace of the cell phone novel, the phenomenon soon moved to China, and many of the online writers are university students. These writers understand what narratives will attract young readers, incorporating emergent events or trendy elements from teen culture into their stories.
Cell phone novels create a virtual world for teenagers via the mobile phone, or, more precisely, via text messages. As in virtual online computer games, readers can put themselves into first person in the story. Cell phone novels create a personal space for each individual reader. Paul Levinson, in Information on the Move (2004), says “…nowadays, a writer can write just about as easily, anywhere, as a reader can read” and they are “not only personal but portable”.
The cell phone novel is changing reading habits; readers no longer need to physically go to a bookshop and purchase a book. They can go online using their cell phone, download a novel, and read it on their personal mobile phone anywhere, any time they wish. Similar to the e-book, its mobility and convenience save time.
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