And the book became mobile

The novel has found a new way of life in the technological age. In Tokyo, on the Ginza subway line, a woman excitedly presses the keys on her cell phone. The device's screen is huge - especially when compared to a European one - and total silence reigns in the car. She's not writing a particularly long SMS. She is writing a novel. In Japan, more than 25 million people have devoured the e-book titled Koizora (literally, love sky) on their mobile screens. Koizora is a romantic story written by a young Japanese woman whose real name remains anonymous and who has chosen to be called the same as the protagonist of the mobile book: Mika.

In Japan this is not a new phenomenon. Japanese people tend to go crazy with stories that are downloaded and read on mobile devices since 2000, when Mahou no iRando was born, a websites with an idea that at first may have seemed strange to many: to create a to post novels in progress on the Internet via telephone.

A not coincidental strategy if you take into account that in Japan 75% of mobile users use their device to browse the Internet, according to a study by Wireless Watch Japan. The websites Mahou no iRando, which allows all netizens to comment on the works of other users, attracted the attention of a society that uses the cell phone for everything: "The Japanese use it to answer calls, to surf the Internet, listen to music, take photos , record videos, play video games, learn English, as an electronic wallet... They even receive alerts in case of an earthquake," says Ana M. Goy Yamamoto, doctor in Economics and Business Management in Japan from the Autonomous University of Madrid. The habit of reading on the subway also responds to a prohibition: in Japan it is not allowed to talk on the cell phone on the subway, so the silence invites you to immerse yourself in the stories that are told on the screen.

The digital revolution of keitai shosetsu (literally, cell novels) is an unstoppable process. He tree media coverage of virtual communities like Mahou no iRando occurred two or three years ago, and last January, the websites dropped the number: more than a million budding writers used their service. The main Japanese publishers - Tohan, Kodansha and Shogakukan... - have encouraged cyber writers to adapt their successes to paper. The result has been that dozens of best sellers as Clearness, Deep love o if you They occupy the shelves of traditional bookstores. And here is the paradox: cellular literature has revived the dying paper industry. Works written through a mobile phone - generally by twenty-somethings - have been a lifeline for editors.

Among the 10 best-selling books in Japan in 2007, five of them - including the top three on the list - are based on cell novels. Koizora, with two million copies sold since its paper publication in 2006, appears on this list. The entertainment industry also takes advantage of the opportunity: Koizora He has jumped onto paper, movies and television in series form.

Most of the cellular works are love melodramas, with a style filled with short phrases, sprinkled with emoticons -the symbols that express states of mind- and with plots and characters that critics call "poor and flat." "They are read by women between 14 and 25 years old, although there are some for thirty-somethings. They are full of neologisms, colloquialisms... It is as if the author were telling a story to a friend. Some are improvised and some are collective," describes Yamamoto. Given the success of the colloquial, the Japanese magazine Bungakukai, specialized in literature, asked last January on its cover: "Will cellular novelists kill the author?".

Followers of the cell novel allege that it is a new literary genre created and devoured by a generation addicted to manga and surrounded by technology. His detractors throw their hands up: they fear that his victory will mean the end of Japanese literature, which according to critics gave the world its first novel. (Genji Monogatari, written in the 11th century).

Leaving aside the literary debate, the figures speak for themselves: the publishers online and the traditional ones do not sink. They take flight. According to data from the Digital Content Association of Japan, the sale of mobile books generated 6.900 billion yen (44,5 million euros) in 2006, and 9.400 billion yen (60,7 million euros) in 2007. And according to beginning of september the french newspaper Le World, From April 2007 to March 2008, the downloading of this type of works has amounted to 28.500 billion yen (184,2 million euros). Good figures for a sector that today in the West and not long ago in Japan was in the doldrums.

The extravagance - works written by twentysomethings on mobile phones save an industry in crisis - raises several questions. Let's start with the crisis: is it possible that the mobile book will come to the rescue of writers, editors and traditional bookstores in Spain?

The omnipresence of mobile telephony in Spain indicates yes. According to the Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT), in August 2008, there were 49,6 million telephone lines, which represents a proportion of 109,8 lines per 100 inhabitants, that is, more than one line per inhabitant. The curious thing is that in Japan the proportion is lower: in April 2008, according to a study by the TelecomPaper group, 80% of Japanese people had a line.

Cellular novels have fertile ground. The ubiquity of the mobile phone in Spain could facilitate its landing. But there are anthropological limitations. Barriers that make it difficult to jump from paper to pixel. "If you tell Westerners that tomorrow they are going to read novels on mobile phones, most of them will look at you as if you are crazy. The business of eBook (only in Dutch at the moment)

remains residual. Which leaves little hope for a possible cellular book," says Enrique Dans, professor at the Business Institute and specialist in new technologies. In the United States, the panorama is different. "There the sector is more mature. He Kindle Amazon

[a digital medium, which they call the iPod of books] has energized the market. They have sold 300.000 units," Dans reports.

The mobile novel also faces a problem of habit: in Spain, the mobile phone is rarely used to browse the Internet. According to a Vodafone study, in 2007 mobile Internet penetration in Spain was around 8%, while in Japan, already in 2005, 50% of users accessed the Internet from their mobile phone, up from 40%. who did it through the computer, according to data from the Ministry of Information and Communication of Japan.

Not to mention the sociological pothole. "Digital reading media and publishers, especially in Spain, tend to reproduce the analogue experience: everything revolves around the book. Digital reading devices such as Sony Reader [reader means reader], Kindle y Readius [in to read, read in English] work with metaphors, with expressions like "turn the page" and their formats are square, like that of the book. Analogies appear when a technology is in an embryonic phase. It happened with the computer -Windows, a metaphor for a window-, and with the newspapers online that at the beginning were replicas of the traditional ones," says Fernando Garrido, deputy director of the Cybersociety Observatory. And he predicts: "When society takes ownership of the phenomenon, the book will transcend paper." A possibility that produces vertigo in traditional publishers. "Publishers refuse to lose their role and are experimenting with business models that allow them to retain their role as mediator between creator and consumer. But it won't be easy: as has happened in music, everything indicates that the relationship will occur without intermediaries."

The first publishing revolution was forged with the transition from oral to written culture and the second, with the arrival of Gutenberg's printing press in the 15th century. It's time for the third. Overcoming the cultural trauma that comes with it is not easy.

"The literary content and the cognitive and emotional result of reading a text are the same whether it is read on a computer, on a mobile phone or on paper. The psychological difference occurs with the emotional relationship with the medium. The conventional book is a physical object, it takes up space, it is placed on a shelf, it has presence and can stir up emotions and memories, even without having read it," explains Javier Garcés, president of the Association of Psychological and Social Studies. The death of the book hurts sensibilities. Although for some, like Igor Sábada, doctor in Sociology and professor at the Carlos III University of Madrid, talking about the end of paper is exaggerated: "There is an excessive tendency, pure marketing, to write the hasty obituary of the Book, with a capital letter. As in Japan, both dimensions - the traditional and the digital - will coexist."

Most publishers are waiting to see what happens in the US. "We are watching how the US market reacts to Kindle, which began to be marketed in 2007," corroborates Gerardo Marín, executive editor of Alfaguara. Others, like Planeta, have already taken the risk. "Five years ago we launched the websites Twentynine.com with many titles to download. Failure. There were no adequate reading media... We'll see now," says Santos Palazzi, general director of Planeta's Mass Market area. And he announces: "In 2009 we hope to offer ebooks at our websites and other associates".

For some, the size of the market is so small that it is not worth the effort. "The publishing house is prepared, we belong to an international group, and in the US, the United Kingdom and England we sell e-books. But in Spain there is still no demand. The ebooks They will arrive when people ask for them," says Nuria Cabuti, communications director at Random House Mondadori. Stuart Applebaum, global spokesperson for the group, confirms: "By the end of 2008 we will have 8.000 e-books in the US, with 1.000 in the UK and with 1.000 more in Germany. It is the fastest growing format at Random House. In the US we have sold more ebooks in the first six months of 2008 than in all of 2007".

Coexistence is inevitable, especially with reference books and textbooks. In Santillana some editors work with e-books. "You can load many on your computer or other device and save paper," acknowledges Gerardo Marín, from the Santillana group (to which Alfaguara belongs). "SM and Santillana offer textbooks and children's books in electronic format, and Planeta and Oceano sell digital encyclopedias. They are all making a great effort," reports Antonio María Ávila, executive director of the Federation of Guilds of Spain (FGEE). "And in law, about 60% of the titles are e-books". But there are fiscal problems. "Electronic or CD-ROM books are not taxed the same as traditional works. VAT is 16%, as in the case of any CD, and not the 4% that applies to books. Community legislation considers eBook (only in Dutch at the moment) provision of services".

Something that does not seem to matter to publishers born on the Internet. They allow authors to edit and sell their books in digital and paper formats. The pioneer was the American Lulu.com. There are Spanish versions like Badosa.com, 13 years old, or Bubok, born last April. Almost all of them work the same. "It is printed on demand and the author decides if the download is free or paid," explains Lucía Llanos, from Bubok.

The intermediary disappears: "The author takes 80% of the profits. In a traditional publishing house the author charges between 8% and 15%." And he adds: "We are happy: more than 70.000 visits per month and 12.300 ebooks sold". There are also Spaniards in the media sector. The company Grammata was born in 2004. In January 2008 it marketed Papyre, its digital book reader. "We offer books, wikipedias, newspapers, Blogs, magazines… We have sold more than 2.000. In 2010 we hope to have placed 50.000 on the market," confides Juan González de la Cámara, director of the company.

Spanish letters flirt with technological language. Bookstores have sold since blognovelas -works based on logbooks- to cybernetic style texts, where classics are mixed with SMS. David Trías, editor of Plaza & Janés, knows a lot about blogbooks. Trías noticed the Argentine Hernán Casciari and his blog Diary of a Fat woman in 2005. They adapted the blog to the paper. Have more respect from your mother -title of the publication- was a success. "Hernán's log was one of the most visited, and there was material." And he gives advice: "The reader has more weight today than 10 years ago. To know what he is interested in, the editor must scour the Internet. I consult Facebook y MySpace to know where the new generations breathe".

The writer Peio H. Riaño is an expert in "technological styles." In Everything has meat (Trojan horse) Riaño introduces file extensions such as JPG: "We cannot refuse virtual language. A JPG [image formats] is as common in our lives as a landscape. With this extension I wanted to play with the idea of ​​a flash, of an image that appears in a few seconds and stays there forever. When asked if he considers himself part of the so-called digital generation, Riaño responds: "I don't know if we are digital, but we are a product of what surrounds us. And as it makes us, it also deforms us, transforms us, turns us inside out and It helps us express ourselves with other resources.

The door is open. The iPhone could be the panacea. It seems that Apple's gadget is popular in Spain. Fernando Garrido, from the Cybersociety Observatory, sees it this way: "All the studies we have done on the iPhone point to a high potential for Internet browsing and how easy it is to read on a large screen. The iPhone could be the solution." .