It's nothing new, really -- Charles Dickens did it years ago with his novels -- and now the International Herald Tribune's Miki Tanikawa looks at the way publishers in Japan are starting to use mobile phones as a way to distribute new books in serial form.

Mika Naito's 2004 novel "Love Link" recorded 1.5 million paid accesses over a six- month period in which it was serially distributed, Tanikawa reports.

"On the book site run by [publisher] Shinchosha, readers pay ¥200, or $1.75, for unlimited access to all electronic novels," Tanikawa writes. "At any time, about 40 titles are available, including many that are no longer subject to copyright, like works by agatha christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Shakespeare."

At bookstores, "you are limited by the hours the store is open," says Katsuyuki Kobayashi, deputy general manager for mobile business at NTT Solmare. "On the mobile, you can get it 24 hours a day."