Goma Books: Publications of Cell Phone Novels Exceed Three Million in One Year

Goma Books and Mahô i-land sponsored an appreciation reception on July 19 in Tokyo to celebrate capturing first place over Tohan (publisher of literary works) and Nippan (publisher of fiction books) for the first half of the year with the publication of the cell phone novel The Red Thread by Mei. Current combined sales for the two-volume work, which went on sale in January, have exceeded one million.
In second place in the same division is If You Could by Rin, with sales of four hundred thousand. Together with Starts Publishing, Goma captured all the book rankings for the first half of the year, establishing the cell phone novel as the "golden tree."
Masayoshi Yoshino, president of Goma Books, said in his opening remarks, "We never imagined it would take off like this, and are just astounded. This all started the year before last, when we consulted with Mahô i-land about a publication to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of our company. More than three million cell phone novels have been published so far this year. I want to establish this not simply as a fad, but as a new kind of culture."


*Some of the book titles are tentative translations.
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