First book ever written using mobile phone is published

Here's another use for your mobile phone. Use it to write a book! That's what Italian author Robert Bernocco did. He has amazed the literary world by publishing the world's first book written using a mobile phone. Bernocco published it on Lulu.com, the online marketplace for digital content.

Bernocco took advantage of his idle time while commuting to and from work by train, writing his 384-page science fiction novel, Compagni di Viaggo (Fellow Travelers is the English translation), on his Nokia 6630 phone, using the phone's T9 typing system. The T9 system provides a predictive text function and can be found on many mobile phones.

By dividing his manuscript into short paragraphs, Mr. Bernocco wrote his novel in perfect Italian, not your typical text-message shorthand, and saved the paragraphs on his mobile phone. Mr. Bernocco then downloaded them onto his home computer for proofreading and editing. The book took him 17 weeks to write.

"Only a few years ago I would have struggled to find both the time and the publisher to enable me to create this book," says Bernocco. "Thanks to my Nokia and Lulu, I am now proud to be a published author."

His novel can be found here.