Mobile Books a Big Hit in Japan
Magic iLand has quickly established itself as the gold standard for mobile phone novels. Work published there is guaranteed hundreds of thousands of readers and lots of street cred. Since its inception, the library has added at least 10 new titles per month. It includes frequently updated reviews and instructions on how to write a mobile phone novel. Last month, the site held the world’s first mobile phone novel award — with the cooperation of heavyweights like NTT DoCoMo, D2 Communications and video-rental giant Tsutaya.
While most of the 2,400 entries were romance novels written by women in their teens and early 20s, other popular genres included horror, sci-fi and fantasy. The Outstanding Achievement Award went to a man pushing 40 who told an apocalyptic tale of the last 24 hours on Earth. Next summer, the company will debut software that allows mobile phone novelists to integrate sounds and images into their story lines. Continue >>