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Printheads: 5 of the top 10 best selling novels in Japan last year began as cellphone novels

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    Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular

    Whatever their literary talents, cellphone novelists are racking up the kind of sales that most more experienced, traditional novelists can only dream of.

    One such star, a 21-year-old woman named Rin, wrote “If You” over a six-month stretch during her senior year in high school. While commuting to her part-time job or whenever she found a free moment, she tapped out passages on her cellphone and uploaded them on a popular Web site for would-be authors.

    After cellphone readers voted her novel No. 1 in one ranking, her story of the tragic love between two childhood friends was turned into a 142-page hardcover book last year. It sold 400,000 copies and became the No. 5 best-selling novel of 2007, according to a closely watched list by Tohan, a major book distributor.
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      CommentAuthorBen
    • CommentTimeJan 19th 2008
     (568.2)
    This makes me very happy and sad at the same time.
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      CommentAuthorUnsub
    • CommentTimeJan 19th 2008
     (568.3)
    I'm having a time out until I can learn some manners.
    No different than when authors went from pen to typewriter and then to word processors.
    Every time there was a change people lamented it but the important part of the process is the author.
    It may make it more democratic and keep big business from keeping good work from being published.
    • CommentAuthorMacgyver
    • CommentTimeJan 19th 2008
     (568.4)
    Hell, I'm sure Warren puts together chunks of his scripts remotely from the pub. Not really all that different. It doesn't matter what the keyboard is attached to, it's the monkey punching the keys that counts.
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    Keitai novels have fascinated me for years. Nothing wrong with a novel, or even a chapter, that's exactly as long as it needs to be...
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      CommentAuthorroque
    • CommentTimeJan 20th 2008
     (568.6)
    I have to figure out a way to get in on this action in English.

    first I guess I need a keitai.
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      CommentAuthorSarpedon
    • CommentTimeJan 20th 2008
     (568.7)
    This makes me very happy and sad at the same time.


    yeah, I just hope people aren't reading the japanese equivalent of "it wuz teh b3st of timez! it wuz teh wurst of timez. LOLZ!"

    the number of novels listed on the site reached one million last month, according to Maho no i-rando.

    I don't even want to think about how terrible 990,000 of these probably are.

    I can't find any information on Rin's If You in English in a short search, I'd be interested if not to read the whole thing to at least get a feel for what it's about. though I guess "tear-jerker featuring adolescent sex, rape, pregnancy and a fatal disease" is a close approximation.
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      CommentAuthorroque
    • CommentTimeJan 20th 2008
     (568.8)
    I can't find any info in Japanese in a short search, either. "Moshimo Kimiga..." is a pretty common phrase. my guess is that the quality of the writing is probably comparable to amateur fiction in English-- a tearjerker drama, like you said.

    I did find out that the chick is from my prefecture, though. rock on.
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      CommentAuthorWinterman
    • CommentTimeJan 20th 2008
     (568.9)
    i don't get it. is the big deal that they're written on cell phones? because that doesn't really impress me. writers write on anything. even other writers.
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    No. They're initially serialised on cellphones, too,
    • CommentAuthorMr. Pants
    • CommentTimeJan 20th 2008 edited
     (568.11)
    So when are comics going to try this route?
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      CommentAuthorBrand
    • CommentTimeJan 20th 2008
     (568.12)
    They already have in Japan. But the Japanese use their cell phones a lot more then we do in the U.S., for all sorts of things. Cell phones are pretty much the main way a lot of Japanese get on the internet, instead of home computers.
  13.  (568.13)
    Comics have been on phones for years.
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      CommentAuthorBen
    • CommentTimeJan 20th 2008
     (568.14)
    http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/07/64328

    Now where the hell was I when that happened.
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      CommentAuthorWinterman
    • CommentTimeJan 20th 2008
     (568.15)
    Ahhhhhh. Now that is interesting. I read DINGO serialized on the web and enjoyed it. never thought of the cellphone route.

    Hmmmm.
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      CommentAuthorConojito
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2008 edited
     (568.16)
    Now, this is interesting. We're seeing fiction that's having it's form defined by the platform on which it's written. It's impossible to write in an ornate or stream-of-conscienceness way on a phone. The ergonomics and limitations of the input method simply won't let you do it. I'm assuming the novelists in question didn't have access to a Bluetooth keyboard a la Ellis, and were using the standard fugly T9 predictive method. That means the author has to write in short, concise bursts.

    Which gives me pause for thought. Since buying an iPhone, I've already noticed that easy input has made my text messaging more long winded. Will the imminent appearance of the iPhone in Japan change the nature of these novels?
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      CommentAuthorroque
    • CommentTimeJan 25th 2008
     (568.17)
    Conojito, it's hard to say. remember, Japanese is still mostly logographic; they can express more with one character than English does with an entire word or even a phrase. so the input method may not hinder them as much.
  18.  (568.18)
    I tried something similar with cell writing years ago--too early, though. It cost everyone receiving the missives $$$, so I dropped it. I'd been thinking of trying something like it again. Reading about the Japanese authors is weirdly encouraging.

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