Rewards for reading and writing cell phone novels? Kiip makes it possible.
_Note: This is a guest post from Derek Vasconi, CEO of [Sakura Publishing](http://sakura-publishing.com/) and Creative Director & Author of [eMobo](http://www.emobo.org/), a portal for reading, writing, and sharing cell phone novels._ As a developer, I have often wondered what is the best way to turn my vision for a great app into a reality. It's been a question that I've spent the last two years working diligently to answer. All the things that go into making an app, from the design concept to the, technical background and monetization opportunities, need to be carefully considered and fused together for the app to stand a chance against any number of other apps that it will compete against for consumer attention. I set out to create eMobo, an app designed to take the very popular Japanese style of writing known as "keitai shousetsu," and bring it to America. You might be wondering: what the heck does "keitai shousetsu" mean? Well, for the past decade or so in Japan, some of the top selling books have been written on cell phones and released to millions of subscribers all over Japan and most of Asia! These stories are characterized by short chapters and ongoing chapter additions that are updated by the writer. These cell phone novels are so wildly popular that in 2011, three of the top five best selling books in Japan were made by people using their phones! With eMobo, anyone can write their own âkeitai shousetsu,â or cell phone novel. You can also use eMobo to read thousands of cell phone stories already written and even get suggestions for stories based on your reading preferences. Additionally, a user can share stories they enjoy via the usual social corridors (i.e. facebook, twitter, and good old fashioned texting). I wanted to integrate Kiip into eMobo for the monetization component, but my initial concern was that Kiip's setup is mainly for game apps. Kiip rewards users for hitting a moment of achievement as defined by the developer. How would that work for a reading and writing app, I wondered? When I spoke with their ultra-supportive team, however, it suddenly became clear to me that eMobo could EASILY benefit from Kiip: I could simply create levels of reading and writing that, when reached by a user, would generate an appropriate reward. A light bulb went off in my head when I realized that Kiip offers a chance for somebody using my app to indulge in reading book after book, writing as many stories as their brains can generate, and share stories with their friends-and get rewarded for it! Who WOULDN'T want to use an app with this kind of incentive? So far, the easiest part of my app's creation was integrating Kiip. The backend with the technology is a breeze to integrate with my appâs coding structure. Likewise, the ease of usage with the kiip platform being integrated on the front end of eMobo has been a painless endeavor. It's my sincere hope that by using Kiip to offer rewards in eMobo, my app will see growth and become profitable enough that my app's future will be secure. I am confident that eMobo will be around for years and years due to the fact that Kiip has allowed my app to not be intrusive in the way that ads so often are within the app user experience. I am certain too that Kiip will become the standard for any app developer when monetizing and marketing their app. And it doesn't matter if your app is not a game either. My app is proof that using the Kiip platform can work with other types of apps as well.