Books are one of the few things that have managed to pass the test of time, with the oldest ones easily outlasting the most ancient of still existing empires. However, as the times change, so does everything that we humans have an impact on. Being something that we create from scratch, books have also changed throughout the times as well. With the introduction of writing in various regions of the world from 3000BC to 300BC, the oldest book soon followed. The oldest “books” are merely records, something that was used to keep track of what happened in a court session or simply just a payment record. Soon after, instructional texts started to be written, as a book would be able to travel places that people would not be willing to. Around the same time were the novels, telling stories to keep other people occupied, creating worlds that people could visit and return within the same day. And now, in the recent past, with the introduction of the internet, there has been yet another introduction to the world of books and novels – web novels. With this new introduction comes a question that needs an answer – Which one is preferable: a web fiction or a print fiction?
The first most obvious issue is the possibility of actually writing a novel. Writing a print novel takes multiple steps. Getting an editor and a publisher are two steps that are almost necessary for the novel to get around to serialization. The novel needs to be revised and edited multiple times before anyone outside of the author’s immediate contact will be able to read it. The Huffington Post asked multiple authors how long it took them to start selling their novels, and the general answer was between 4 to 10 years. With the longest taking 25 years to sell their first, and experienced authors taking 6 months to write a new one.
In this aspect, the world of online novels completely beats out print novels. Writing an online novel is relatively simple. After typing it out, all that needs to be done is to put it onto a website. The process of putting a written novel on a website couldn’t be any simpler, and the range of possibilities is vast as well. The choices range from putting it on something as simple as a google site, a blog of your own, or even a website that hosts collections of stories on it, such as Royal Road Legends of Fictionpress. The various options have their own benefits and drawbacks to them, but this is also very similar to the usage of different editors and publishers.
The simplicity of a web site is unmatchable by any of the other choices, but the problem with this option is publicity. When just starting, there won’t be much activity on the site, if any, without effort being placed into advertising your story through other means, such as showing it to your friends, or posting about it in a large forum or group chat.
Putting it in a blog would be similar to putting it in a google site, with around the same amount of simplicity, but other factors like paying for the URL or extra knowledge of HTML could be necessary. However, this helps bypass some drawbacks of using something as simple as a google site, such as a page limit. Getting a custom URL also helps by making the site more recognizable, but until actual profit can be made, the money for that URL will be coming from some other source, most likely your own pocket.
Putting your story on a website that hosts a collection of stories helps by increasing the audience that you’re able to reach, without you having to do much at all. With a search function, any reader can quickly find your story. With a “newest updates” section, you’ll at least get a couple of readers each time you update with a new chapter. However, you’re likely to be shadowed by the more popular stories on the site, leaving you in condition where you’re stuck doing your best to get as many readers as possible. These tactics can take a while to bring any results, but it’s not like you wouldn’t have to do them had you picked another option for where to put your story. However, this article isn’t about where you should place your novel, it’s about whether or not your novel should be online in the first place.
Print novels and online novels differ again in the way that they release. Typically, a print novel releases multiple chapters together, usually encompassing an entire arc. Series like Harry Potter and the Percy Jackson series solve the question of how much content to put into one novel with a simple solution – cover an entire year’s incidents in one novel. The individual chapter lengths don’t really matter, and sometimes, there aren’t even titles for the chapters, which is what we see in the Percy Jackson series, starting from The Lost Hero. This means that before the actual novel is released, nobody gets to read any of the chapters, but this also means that once released, there isn’t any waiting for the arc to finish being updated – it’s all in the novel. However, this results in a long period of time waiting between the novels for the story to continue.
Conversely, the online novels update whenever the author feels like it. This can lead to an author procrastinating really hard, like I’m doing on my novel, Rush, or releasing constant updates as long as their health permits them to. The logic behind constant updates is that doing so results in a reliability that the readers believe the author to have, resulting in increased popularity because the next time between the current and next chapter is a time that can be expected. Even though this means that the time between updates to the story are released every week or month, in contrast to the many months that print novels can take, this also means that an arc can take multiple chapters to finish, leaving readers in the middle of the arc for many months at a time, whereas print novels will typically finish at least one arc within the contents of its chapters.
Another difference between print novels and online novels are its target audiences. Print novels can have almost any target audience it wants, and is typically decided by the contents of the novel itself. A print novel is also able to appeal to many people who are much less familiar with the internet, reaching a group of people that the online novels can’t hope to reach. Online novels are only able to reach people that use the internet frequently. Such a limitation causes the reach of online novels to be incomparable to the reach of print novel, especially when the existence of libraries is considered. Anyone with access to the internet definitely has access to print novels, whereas the reverse can’t be said. Statistics from 2013 show that 69% of adults read a print book in the year of 2013 while only 28% read an e-book.[1] This number is bound to be higher than the amount of people that have read an online novel. Although the number of readers of online novels has definitely increased over the past 4 years, print novels definitely still have a higher percentage. I was unable to find the average age of a book reader, or the average age of an internet user, but I was able to confirm that while the percentage of people that have read a book stays relatively close throughout the age groups, the same cannot be said for the people that use the internet. Many people in the higher age groups don’t use the internet, which leaves them out of the approachable audience for online novels.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
However, in contrast, an online novel is much more accessible than a print one. Logically speaking, anyone can access an online novel – all they need to do is connect to the internet and go to the website. Accessing a print book means buying the book itself. This ultimately comes down to a tie between online novels and print novels. Although print novel may be able to appeal and be available to more people, online novels are more readily accessible for the people that have internet.
Going hand in hand with the target audience issue is the issue of publicity. With a larger target audience, more publicity is almost guaranteed. Publishing companies can easily promote the novels that they publish through means of advertising – either online or in other novels that they are publishing. Magazine companies and other specialized critics are typically invited to read a novel before it is available to the public, and the reviews by these critics are used to suggest that the novel is one worth reading. Online novels have a similar capability, which is the review system that any reader is allowed to do. However, this means that anyone can give a 1 star review just because they feel like it, or that they have no idea what your novel is about. Overcoming a 1 star review from the beginning is almost impossible, since many readers will be discouraged from reading it just from the rating that the novel got. Publicity is yet another factor where the print novel shadows the online novels.
Although the Constitution states that the press has ultimate freedom, when publishers and editors are brought into the equation, there no longer is ultimate and true freedom. Publishers typically want the public opinion of the publishing company to be a positive one, and as such, the company will deny some novels just because of the topics that might be covered in the novel. However, this can be easily bypassed by publishing a novel on your own, but this is something that is not usually done. This means that for a novel to be even be able to be considered for publishing, it must not cover any of the publishing world’s taboos. An online novel has considerably more freedom than a print novel does, but depending on the place that you chose to upload it, you might have some similar issues as you would have had, had you decided to go with a publisher. The greatest amount of freedom, in this case, comes from either publishing your novel yourself or by putting the novel on a website that you manage yourself. However, if the novel covers topics in a way that companies and websites wouldn’t want themselves to be attributed to, should you really be writing about it?
Yet another difference is that print novels are able to earn millions, especially when it comes to related merchandise rights. The possibility of a movie or related works is very high, especially when it comes to novels written especially well. The profit that comes from a book can be astronomical when compared to online novels. However, this is almost essentially a gamble. Writing a print book takes time, and with that, money. If the book doesn’t sell well, then that money spent making the book a possibility isn’t earnt back, which leaves you in the red. Going with an online novel is a much safer choice, but this also denies almost any chance of major profit. Making money through an online novel is different with the different ways that you can put it online. The options range from posting advertisements on the website to asking for donations. However, none of these options provide much, but at least there isn’t a high chance of debt, unless you’re paying for a custom URL link.
Everything that you do in life brings you to a different social group. Although each group has their own good sides and bad sides, each one is, without a doubt, different. The group that you will interact with as a part of the print novel community just isn’t going to be the same as the group that you will interact with as a part of the online novel community. The advice, support, and benefits that you’ll get from each community and group vary vastly. The Royal Road Legends community is active with hundreds of members in the Discord chat that they use, with members acting as anything from just a reader, author, or editor to an admin of the page. Although you might be able to get any help you might need faster, there are things that this group won’t be able to do, when compared to the group that you would be a part of if you wrote print novels.
In the end, everything evens out. Each side has its own ups and downs, which leaves you to make your own decision. There isn’t really a clear-cut answer for the long term here, but as for the short term, the answer is actually relatively simple. If it’s your first time writing a novel, and you have almost no experience, you’ll definitely want to start online first, where the stakes are much lower. You’ll be able to publish one chapter at a time, and view any reviews that you get. The online community has many people willing to help you as you get better. However, if you’ve already been writing for a while, then the decision to go into the print business no longer seems as ludicrous as it once was.
[1] http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/01/16/a-snapshot-of-reading-in-america-in-2013/ - information about the readership demographics.
⃞ Azirim