The Japanese are reading novels on their mobile phones. Lots of novels.
One of the country’s leading mobile publishers, Maho i-Land, has six million members and over one million titles to choose from.
According to industrywide data cited by Japan’s largest cellphone operator NTT DoCoMo Inc., sales from mobile-book and comic-book services are expected to more than double, to more than $200 million from about $90 million last year.
Interestingly, some novels are also being written on the mobile. Satomi Nakamura, a 22-year-old homemaker who recently finished writing a 200-page novel titled To Love You Again entirely on her tiny cellphone screen, got so carried away last month that she broke a blood vessel on her right little finger.
[via The Wall Street Journal (piad sub. req.)]