If news of Kate Moss canoodling with her latest boyfriend whilst Pete Doherty spends yet another night in the cells is the kind of thing that has you drooling through your commute, then travelling on London public transport these days must be an absolute delight for you. If you’re of a slightly more discerning nature however, and you don’t happen to have your own book with you, being stuck twice a day for up to an hour each way with nothing but the freesheets to read can have you tearing your hair out with frustration. There is, however, an alternative.

Litro is a London freesheet with a difference. Published fortnightly and distributed at various underground stations and a variety of shops, bars, and cultural centres across the city, each issue of Litro features at least one piece of original fiction.

The seeds of Litro were planted as early as 2005 by south London residents Mike Fell and Kyra Kellawan. Mike suggested the idea of a weekly short story publication to Kyra, whose background in PR and communications enabled them, once they got the ball rolling, to raise awareness of what they were up to.

"It just seemed to me that there was a big demand for something to read on the tube," says Mike, "to the extent that people would read anything – ads, TV magazines, even thelondonpaper – rather than do nothing; while at the same time there was a large supply of quality short fiction which is perfect for a journey on the underground. The two just needed bringing together."

It’s one thing to have a good idea of course, and quite another to actually get round to doing something about it. How did this particular idea get translated into action? "The first thing I did was buy the domain name so at least I had some reason not to just forget the idea. It does take quite a lot of time to organise, but with the help of Kyra and other distributors and promoters, it’s doable. It’s an enjoyable challenge, and it has grown pretty smoothly."

At the beginning it was a very small scale affair. "When it first started," says Mike, "I’d put the issue together, print out maybe 100 copies and hand them out at Clapham North. Kyra would print out a similar number and hand them out at London Bridge. Then we also had a network of distributors who would download the file from the website, print out their own copies and distribute them."

Then they found that people all around the country and even throughout the rest of the world were so supportive of what they were trying to do that they’d print out copies and leave them on public transport or in libraries. Copies of Litro began to appear on trams in Sheffield and buses in Durham, then even as far afield as Munich, Boston and Vancouver.

More recently, with the support of a small publishing company called Ocean Media, Litro has managed to expand its operations somewhat, with distribution rising from just a couple of thousand to 5,000 and eventually 20,000 copies in November.

One of the things that makes Litro unique, certainly amongst the ranks of other London freesheets, is the sense of community that it inspires. Not only are lovers of fiction the world over willing to print off and distribute copies, but also anyone can submit their stories for publication, so this month’s reader can be next month’s featured writer, and the writers who are chosen for publication are just as likely to be first-timers as well-established authors. The latter category has thus far included prize-winning authors like Danny Rhodes, Yiyun Li and Andy Crumey, who won the Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award last year. Mention of Northern Rock brings about a wry smile. "I hope he cashed the cheque," Mike adds.

Speaking of cheques, something else that makes Litro extremely unusual is the founders’ complete lack of financial motivation. Mike’s day-job is with an environmental publisher and Kyra works for a London university, and as far as they’re concerned, Litro is a non-profit venture undertaken solely for a shared love of storytelling. With the recent involvement of Ocean Media, the printed version of Litro now contains adverts, which for the first time will mean a little bit of money coming in. Mike explains: "Money that becomes available through the advertising will be put toward a Litro fund to promote writing and literacy, most probably in Lambeth."

Litro’s links with south London are now long established. Mike, himself a resident of Lambeth, has been producing the publication from his Stockwell flat – with the help of a local printing firm – and distributing at Clapham North, then Stockwell station, since April. Kyra, a resident of Peckham, continues to distribute at London Bridge station. Early on, Mike sought support from his local library and now all of Lambeth’s libraries stock Litro as a matter of course. Also, since September, Peckham Library has distributed Litro, and hopefully the rest of Southwark’s libraries will soon follow suit. These days you can also find copies at many independent bookshops, as well as the ICA and Tate (both Britain and Modern). After over a year of just a handful of regular readers and supporter-distributors, Litro is finally beginning to reach the kind of audience it deserves. This is set to continue as plans are afoot to take Litro to other UK cities, as well as New York and Paris.

All of which, as well as being good news for the short story, is great news for London’s literate, showbiz and sensationalism-weary commuters.

www.litro.co.uk