After a surprising number of GalleyCat readers said they read digital books on their cell phones, we interviewed a writer who published his short stories like iTunes singles–tapping this new kind of audience.
Will Entrekin left his creative writing MFA program with a short story collection and no place to publish. Inspired by the MP3 downloading model that unhinged the record industry, he started breaking his collection into bite-sized units. He explained:
“Imagine if you saw Michael Chabon’s latest essay collection, but only wanted a couple of the stories in it and could actually choose to download solely those? As for the actual reading experience, one of the brilliant things about the iPhone is the way its display works, with zooming and scrolling, so the great thing is that readers can customize the way they read it themselves.”
Our industrious writer found more than a thousand readers who downloaded his material–using digital readers, mobile phones and computers. Entrekin concluded: “Do I plan to publish more? Probably. My short stories, certainly, because I still don’t think very highly of the marketplace for them…[My sales] ain’t much, provided, but for a young writer pretty much nobody’s ever heard of, I’m pretty proud of it so far.”
Anybody else publishing primarily on mobile phone platforms? Email GalleyCat about your experience.