The development has been so widespread that half of the ten bestselling books of 2007 in Japan originated from mobile phones. Many have been so successful that they have been adapted into comic books, TV shows and even films.
The trend is now sweeping through China, with the most successful writers predominantly being university students. Observers believe that this is because they understand the interests and culture of young, technologically-savvy readers. If mobile phone novels do take off in the UK, it is expected that they will be popularized by students.
The first novel
‘Deep Love’ by Yoshi (who, like most mobile phone novelists, is known by a single name) is the first believed novel of this kind. It has been widely reported that it used “erotic language and violence to create a page-turner despite a preposterous plot line”. Although, how a mobile phone novel can be a ‘page-turner’ seems to be a logistical challenge to say the least.
‘Deep Love’ became hugely popular through word-of-mouth amongst students and went on to generate a number of multi-platform adaptations. The book version has sold 2.6 million copies.
What makes a mobile phone novel?
They are mainly love stories written in short sentences and have around 70 word chapters. The style is typical of text messaging language and has very little of the plot twists or character development found in traditional novels.
Where did it come from?
The mobile phone novel originates from the blog novel which became popular on the internet in the late nineties. A website called ‘Maho no i-rando’ began to allow users to upload mobile phone novels and the trend grew. The number of novels uploaded onto the website is now over 1 million.
Will it catch on?
Paul Levinson, author of New New Media (2009), believes that it will. “We are constantly engaged in stories,” he says. “The mobile phone novel speaks perfectly to this narrative need. It allows us to access stories anytime, any place. It also allows us to write a novel with the same ease of access to the world at large. I expect the genre to be successful everywhere in the world in which there are mobile phones, which is pretty well everywhere.”
Is it a viable literary genre?
Kathyrn Sutherland, a Professorial Fellow in English at University of Oxford, says that it can only be positive when we adapt technology to our imaginative and sociable needs.
“There is no single rule for what a novel should or should not be or do other than that it take an interest in the fate of the individual,” she says. “The novel has over centuries (in the West) been remarkably inventive technically - newness and curiosity have impelled both the good and the bad in fiction.
“The novel, too, has responded well over centuries to technological changes so, I do think we'll see mobile phone novels and that some will combine inventively with the technology, its limits and challenges, and will offer new insights into what it is to be human. So, I look forward to the mobile phone novel. Of course, this does not mean that many will not be bad, but there are lots of bad novels out there in print too. Incidentally, I am interested that in Japan the most successful mobile phone novels graduate into print, which of course has happened with blog literature. Print is still to be aspired to.”
What do you think? Will mobile phone novels catch on? Do you have what it takes to write the next mobile phone novel bestseller? If so why not email them to us and we will publish the best ones online.