IP: Publisher to serialize novels through novel phones

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Publisher to serialize novels through novel phones
The Asahi Shimbun

If you can't beat them, join them-that may be what motivated publisher 
Shinchosha Co. to decide to distribute serialized novels through cellular 
phones, knowing that young people buy fewer books because they spend so 
much on the gadgets.
Shinchosha will begin releasing serials in January, working with NEC 
Interchannel, the computer software developer. Subscribers can download the 
novels for 100 yen a month, in addition to the basic phone charge.
Customers of au, a mobile phone unit of KDDI Corp., and Tu-ka will be able 
to download daily installments of the serialized novels from EZWeb, the 
mobile Internet service.
Titles to be serialized will be drawn from works by Asa Nonami and Masumi 
Hattori. Both women have won the prestigious Naoki literary prize.
The installments, issued Monday through Friday, are in segments of 1,000 to 
1,200 characters, or about the length of serialized novels in daily 
newspapers. Most phone displays are limited to showing about 100 characters 
at a time. The novels are on Web sites, or can be retrieved as e-mails.


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