In a first for South Africa, Mobfest launched Novel Idea, a text based mobile channel on Monday 7 July. The mobile channel delivers serialised daily fiction in the form of 'textisodes' to the mobile handset. The content is entertainment focused and written specifically with the mobile reader in mind.

“Novel Idea is unique in the publishing environment in that the 'textisodes' have been commissioned specifically for the mobile platform,” says Mobfest’s Emma Kaye. “Each story is texted or typed in the form of 28 episodes no longer than 900 characters and each offer a tantalizing literary snack that readers can digest on the go.”

The writers participating in Novel Idea are all published authors and their mobile textisodes range from a blind-date thriller to an animal smuggler�s adventure story. Registration is now open. Once you register for Novel Idea you will be sent daily episodes of the stories you select, starting on 7 July 2008. To register, SMS the word NOVEL to 33879.

Readers will also get to vote for their top writer and create South Africa's first award winning ‘mobilist’..

The authors participating in this first round of Novel Idea are:
Diane Awerbuck (award-winning author of Gardening at Night),
Lauren Beukes (author of hot new futuristic novel Moxyland),
Richard de Nooy (Six Fang Marks and a Tetanus Shot),
Robyn Goss (And So Say All of Us...),
Sarah Lotz (Pompidou Posse),
Henrietta Rose-Innes (The Rock Alphabet),
Stephan Simm (aka Miss Kwa Kwa),
Zukiswa Wanner (The Madams),
Sam Wilson (Urbo).