Will traditional publishers pursue cellphone novels?
o If traditional publishers pursue cellphone novels according to their traditional sales model, they are likely to explore the genre on a per book fee (i.e., for access to an e-book) § Problem: requires marketing dollars, infrastructure and preserves the status quo for existing fiction and authors (i.e., traditional authors may get published this way) § Also readers may simply not want to pay for e-books that they have to read on such a small screen o More interesting twist would be to see some revolutionary or evolutionary activity in this space and let the publisher’s sponsor the creative works of the start-ups (i.e., offer prize money for publishing rights to winning novels) o An interesting question is whether cellphone novels can provide any kind of evolutionary or revolutionary change to traditional fiction: allowing more writers to get published, allowing more novels to get in the hands of readers, and increasing the readership base for everyone – something similar to American I
