Thanks to Beth Bloomfield for letting me know about this article.

“TOKYO — Until recently, cellphone novels — composed on phone keypads by young women wielding dexterous thumbs and read by fans on their tiny screens — had been dismissed in Japan as a subgenre unworthy of the country that gave the world its first novel, “The Tale of Genji,” a millennium ago. Then last month, the year-end best-seller tally showed that cellphone novels, republished in book form, have not only infiltrated the mainstream but have come to dominate it”

Get the full article here in the New York Times

“Chaco types furiously on her cell phone keypad, stopping only to take an occasional puff of her Seven Stars menthol cigarette. But she’s not sending a text message. She’s writing a novel.

Chaco is becoming one of the most popular mobile phone novelists in Japan. We don’t know much about her — except that she’s a twenty-something Pisces from Osaka — but we do know that she can spit out books faster than Danielle Steel. In the last 14 months, she wrote five novels, including her best seller What the Angel Gave Me, which has sold more than 1 million copies to date.

“I can type faster on my phone than on a standard keyboard,” she says. In between chapters, Chaco logs on to her blog and puts up a progress report for her eagerly waiting fans. “My god, it’s already 9:30!” she writes. “Where was I? I was sitting at my desk with writer’s block.” ‘

Read the full article here:

Big Books Hit Japan’s Tiny Phones