There’s long been a cell phone novel craze in Japan, and I’ve been rather fascinated by them. These are books written on cell phones, meant to be read on cell phones. Not even big iPhone or DROID screens, but on those little phone screens. Now, I know I’m the guy who loves gadgets and ebooks and all that, but this is one of those things I’ve never understood. And, I never thought they’d come to the English-speaking world. But lo and behold, I see an annoucement on Publisher’s Marketplace the other day: “Joseph Nassise and Jon Merz’s THE CERBERUS PROTOCOL – Book One in the HELLstalkers series, claiming to be the first English thriller series written exclusively for mobile phones…”

Is this the future of the novel? I don’t know. From the partnership agreement with Vodaphone, this doesn’t seem like something that’ll be in the US straight off the bat. I wonder how it’ll be distributed and how money will be made, and I wonder how large the audience will be. I’ll be watching this one closely!

What do you think? Would you read some sort of serialized novel on a small screen? Would you pay for it? Or would you sign with a particular carrier to get such exclusives? Anyone want to try writing such a thing?

-Michael