Cell Phone put to novel idea

Wired

TOKYO -- Your eyes probably hurt just thinking about it: Tens of thousands of Japanese cell-phone owners are poring over full-length novels on their tiny screens.

In this technology-enamored nation, the mobile phone has become so widespread as an entertainment and communication device that reading e-mail, news headlines and weather forecasts -- rather advanced mobile features by global standards -- is routine.

Now, Japan's cell-phone users are turning pages. :MORE::

Mobile phone novels hit bestseller lists

Mobile phone novelists are hitting the bestseller lists as a new generation of writers are tapping out entire novels on the keys of a telephone handset.

In Japan, where new technology trends often come early, so-called keitai shosetsu are a publishing phenomenon.

Out of the top 10 bestselling fiction works in the first half of 2007, five started as keitai novels and boast average sales of 400,000.