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NOVELS DELIVERED TO YOUR PHONE

Trends in Japan: "The bestselling novel Deep Love was self-published in installments by the author on a website that offers content packaged for users of mobile phones. The story is about a 17-year-old girl named Ayu, who finds love through a chance encounter.

The author, who calls himself Yoshi, created a website providing content for mobile phones in May 2000 with an investment of just �100,000 ($909.09 at �110 to the dollar). Using a promotional campaign that consisted of passing out business cards to about 2,000 high-school girls in front of Tokyo's Shibuya Station (the center of Tokyo youth culture), Yoshi released The Story of Ayu, the first installment in the longer novel. News of the novel spread by word of mouth, and within three years the site had received a total of 20 million hits.

...Major Publishers Get Involved
The number of mobile phones currently in use in Japan is a staggering 78 million. About two out of three people have one. The potential of "mobile-phone novels" has captured the attention of major publishers, which have begun creating their own websites to provide content for mobile-phone users. Shinchosha Co.'s Shincho Keitai Bunko ("Shincho Mobile-Phone Collection"), Kadokawa Shoten Publishing's Bunko Yomihodai ("All-You-Can-Read Collection"), and Sharp Corp.'s Space Town Books are just a few examples. Users can download books from these sites to read at their leisure. A typical service plan offers unlimited use for a flat monthly fee of ¥100-¥300 ($0.91-$2.73) or charges around ¥400 ($3.64) per book. Users must also pay a download fee of anywhere from ¥100 ($.091) to ¥700 ($6.36) per book to the provider of their phone service. "

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