The novel is called ‘Outside the Fortress Besieged’,and has sold well in full book form.Now Chinese author Qian Fuchang has cut down his original novel into bite-sized chunks for transmission by text message.The BBC reports that “the work has been cut down to 4,200 characters and will be distributed as 60 chapters of 70 characters each.As well as getting the novel in SMS chunks, Chinese mobile phone users can choose to have it read to them over the phone or they can read it themselves on a webpage for mobiles”.
Chinese try out text msg novel