The authors are usually no older than their readers. The most successful among them can even earn a living from their art – when their novel makes it to the shelves of a bookstore in good old printed form or even as a movie to the cinema screen.

The cell phone has become a fixture in the everyday life of young people in Japan, their lives inconceivable without it. The “thumbs generation“ uses its cell phone at every opportunity, for instance to bridge over any time spent waiting for the subway or bus on the way to school or to work. And although reading on the small display is something that one needs to get accustomed to, reading habits have changed and become adapted to the new format very rapidly. Such technical advances as mobile Internet access, ever larger and brighter screens, as well as innovative ways of scrolling, are all fostering reading of digital reading matter. Transmitted and read in millions every day, in its basic form the SMS (Short Message Service) has been integrated in our life for years now. For young people around the world, it is their favorite form of non-verbal communication.

A digital novel in installments lives from the involvement of its readership. Feedback after each installment published rapidly enables an author to notice whether he has moved the plot in the wrong direction, and to react and combat this. Often the readership will forward  fresh ideas on the plot or the characters to an author, almost becoming co-authors in the process.

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