by Wogan
Introducing: Penhouse
February 11, 2010 in Announcements by Wogan
NB: Stuff’s still under development here. Just saying.
Ok, so, Penhouse. The idea here is to create a space for South African writers to, well, write. And collaborate, share, all those other nice things that the Internet in 2010 has enabled. So far, we’re about 95% of the way there, with just a few more tweaks to go – as well as a lot of documentation.
Why penhouse? Why an online medium for an industry that, for all intents and purposes, is threatened by the internet? With the rapid decline of the newspaper industry, and the encroaching reach of ebooks and readers (Kindle, Nook, and now the iPad), publishing is slowly taking on new meaning. The internet, with it’s open-content model, means anyone, anywhere can publish anything online – and it’s only getting cheaper and easier by the day.
Self-publishing is also becoming a more viable route for content producers, with Print-on-Demand providers like http://www.lulu.com/. These days, print is not so much the message, as it’s only the medium – and one among many, at that.
Here’s a fun fact – in Japan, people are writing novels on cellphones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_phone_novel – the first of which went on to become a fully published book. That phenomenon is just reaching South African shores, under the collective brand of the “m-novel”:
The face of publishing is rapidly changing, and when the right tools are made available, anything can happen. That’s where Penhouse comes in – creating a space for local authors to do just that. Accounts are free, the hosting itself is free – just bring yourself and your creativity 
mmm some people just do it, the don’t talk about doing.
I published a book for the first time 2006 on Lulu(1), and turned it into a business (2) where I now print on demand locally, as well as providing publishing services.
(1) http://www.lulu.com/justdone
(2) http://www.justdone.co.za
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Most of those Japaneese novels you are referring to tend to be flash novels (i.e. shorter than a chapter in one of Dovey’s stories).
Though I don’t see why it can’t be done, a lot of smart phones these days have pretty decent keyboards with reasonable screen sizes (look at the Android and Windows Mobile and Palm Offerings – Android and Palm offer Office type applications – not sure about Palm – thus making the option entirely possible). Wouldn’t include the iPhone as I think using its keyboard to type a novel is probably a bit of stretch.
I do enjoy using my phone as a reader though – reasonably small (i.e. fits in most pockets) has a good screen, keyboard and decent software, plus a couple of different types of readers currently covers me for most file types that books are currently published/distributed. Thus in my pocket I generally carry +-200 books, 7-10 albums and the whole web all in a neat phone package. Life is sweet – especially as can be reading while listening to music and still look up something on the net at the same time if I come across something I don’t know or understand.
Admit that I also do try and by paperbacks too – cause I sometimes like to read in the bath and in some places like the bath it just isn’t always practicle to use the phone.
Flash novels? lol – the 2003 breakout novel was called “Deep Love” and is a 236-page hardcover monstrosity: http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Love-Story-Japanese-Language/dp/B0012Y0YL8/ref=sr_1_1/176-1007775-6627556?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267187917&sr=1-1
Here’s another one – “If You”, by Rin, a 142-page hardcover that took 6 months to write: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/world/asia/20japan.html?_r=1
So yeah, I’d say it counts as serious noveling
Personally (and unbelievably) I don’t do a lot of offline reading. Most reading and all my writing is digital. It’s not just the thrill of writing that I love, but the added power of being able to do it on a completely flexible medium. There’s just something about the speed and power of the internet that continues to amaze me…
~ Wogan