Text Messaged Books Are All the Rage in Japan
By Jane • Dec 4th, 2007 • Category: Publishing News • •
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 ＿|￣|○.
Jane is a long time romance reader whose passion is, you guessed it, reading. Jane also does not like to talk about herself in the third person, but apparently this is the way that this biography thing works (although in a true biography, someone else would be writing this blurb). Anyway, currently Jane loves urban fantasy authors Patricia Briggs and Ilona Andrews. She's really excited about this year's crop of historicals including Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady and Sherry Thomas' Private Arrangements and the upcoming Loretta Chase Her Scandalous Ways.
She's looking for a good contemporary author. Email her with a recommendation!
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