Chiki Sarkar who was with Penguin has set up a new publishing company — Juggernaut for which a phone app is being developed. Durga Raghunath with experience in digital publishing is with her in this venture. They intend to publish all kinds of books, and to start with they will launch 25 title by April, 2016. The titles will multiply soon. They want to occupy a niche — being a phone publisher. Books will be presented on the phone as a ‘snack’ to the growing population of phone users. They believe that phone publishing can revitalize a faltering publishing industry showing declining sales. In phone publishing, one can publish many more titles, at cheaper cost, experiment across genres, collect revenue faster and disburse it faster. If they get the price point, content and consumer experience right, they will break all the records of title publishing. Phone reading will draw in those who have time to read in short, sharp bursts. The presentation will be mobile-friendly. A book of 200 pages can be divided into snack-sized portions, short digestible bits. There will be a chapter or two first and if they like this, more chapters follow. It will be just like an episodic TV serial. In China and Japan, mobile publishing is a big industry. Apart from breaking down a big book, Sarkar wants short books for the phones, say of 20 thousand to 40 thousand words. There are going to be new tales every night at 10 pm.

The app will be light. The payment gateway should be smooth. They have to be responsive to what works and what does not. The content should be compelling enough for the readers to read on the phone.

To the writers, it is a lucrative deal — there will be a physical life, an e-book life and a phone life. There will be greater and faster royalties. Writers can have deep conversations with the readers. If you as an author get a community of people, it will be easier to market the next book. A reader through the app can tell a writer that in chapter 1 which he liked led him to chapter 6 where his favourite character was killed. He may ask the rationale for it.

Nanndan Nilkeni and others are backing this idea.