Winter's Desire


Text Messaged Books Are All the Rage in Japan

sms
Image Source: H.G.

What has Rin, a preschool teacher in Japan, done that thousands of authors, both in print and aspiring, haven’t? Sold 400,000 copies of a hardcover book that contains a story she gave away for free.

Rin (a pseudonym) writes books via her cellular phone. Her audience is primarily the youth who check their phones for an update compulsively. The story is told in one line sentences, emoticons, and graphics called emoji. O_o . The entire book is sent via text message but despite the free nature of the work, hundreds of thousands of readers have purchased a physical copy.

This is true for many of the bestselling works in Japan. According to the Brisbane Times article, half of Japan’s top selling works of fiction were composed on cell phones and disseminated that way with the books average 400,000 copies in sales.

This phenomenon desires a O_o and a  ̄□ ̄; and maybe a _| ̄|○.

Related Posts:

JaneJane is a long time romance reader whose passion is, you guessed it, reading. She's currently loving contemporary authors like Sarah Mayberry and Kristan Higgins but her first love will always be the historical. Some of her old time favorites are Amanda Quick and Johanna Lindsey and some of the new favorites are Sherry Thomas, Joanna Bourne and Claudia Dain. Email this author | All posts by Jane

Say What's On Your mind

Subscribe without commenting