Novelr is a blog about writing and presenting fiction on the Internet. It deals with the way the Internet is changing the way we read – whether it is books we’re dealing with or not. What is the future of the book? Can blooks make a lasting impact in the publishing industry? Here we explore the various (and sometime non-sensical) ways literature and the web mash together. First things first, however:
What’s a blook?
Just as ‘blog’ is a short for ‘web log’, a blook is a short for ‘blog book’. When it first came out there was a furore in the blogging world about how horrible the word sounded. But on it went, becoming the runner-up word of the year of 2006 (hah! All you bloggers out there who hate the word Blook better start getting used to it!). What blook means, according to Wikipedia:
With the advent of the blog people started to publish books serialized on their blogs. Chapters are published one by one as blog posts, and readers can then subscribe to the blook via an RSS feed, tag it and comment on it. This type of blook was popularized by Tom Evslin in September 2005, with the launch of hackoff.com, a murder mystery set in the dot-com bubble.
Focus and Community
Novelr deals primarily with the following topics:
- It explores methods of promoting online fiction to the Internet mainstream
- It explores techniques for writing and presenting fiction on the Internet
- It touches on converting your work from blog to book format
- It discusses the effects the Internet has on traditional print media, and
- It serves as a rally point for Internet writers. Novelr is actively involved in community building.
Novelr encourages community participation through comments and guest posts. If you are a writer and you have something interesting to say on the topics Novelr deals with feel free to contact Eli James here.
Another introduction on what Novelr plans to be about can be found in the very first post.
Support Novelr
Novelr does not at the moment earn enough with ads to underwrite all the projects it undertakes. Money made through Novelr will be channeled to other efforts of promoting web fiction – in the next year Novelr will launch an editorial filter for online fiction, as well as several experiments on digital prose presentation. Money made through Novelr is also used for hosting costs and bandwidth increases. The site sometimes overshoots its bandwidth limit, due to traffic spikes from viral Internet linking.
You can support Novelr through two ways.
- Advertise on Novelr. Text link ads and image ads are both available. More information can be found here.
- Donate to Novelr. Click the button below to support Novelr’s cause. You may donate any amount you wish.
Praise For Novelr
… landed up at Novelr a few times after googling stuff about blooks … much informed by the posts … an excellent litblog
- Bibliobibuli (Sharon Bakar)
Easily one of the most thought-provoking blogs on writing that I’ve read. I only wish he’d post more often because what he says invariably helps my writing!
- Undead Flowers (Richard)
… superb, and really good for keeping up with these things (blooks)
- Progression (James Smythe)
… online fiction could become very big … Eli has used his insightful blog to create a great community for online writers and readers.
- Ideas for Business
… the whole site is a gem.
- Collected Voices (KSB)
… an excellent source for information on sites, articles, and other things that I wouldn’t have heard of otherwise, and its synopses and analyses are first-rate, telling me everything that I need to know about and suggesting everything that I should think about a variety of posts and articles elsewhere that I don’t have the time or inclination to find and read for myself.
-M. Alan Thomas II, in a guest post
About The Blogger (Eli James)
Eli James is a nom de plume. He is a Malaysian student, an Apple fanatic and an aspiring author. He has been writing since he was 7, and was introduced to the world of blooking with an experiment in writing online called Janus, which is categorized under the YA genre. A quick FAQ:
Why did you start Novelr?
Novelr began while I was writing the first few episodes of Janus. I had written other manuscripts before, but all of them were offline and I wanted inspiration on how to write, where to write and who to look to for ideas. I found nothing. There were a few forums here and there, mostly through Wikipedia’s Blook page, but these weren’t enough. I started listing out blooks I was reading and started subscribing to PR releases by Lulu for the annual Blooker award.
About Janus, why did you consider writing it in blook form?
Janus was an experiment on characterization. I wanted to see how far I could push the cliches of the YA genre while at the same time building believable characters: you know, boy in ‘magic’ school, boy and friends get entangled in things way out of their league, yada yada yada. I don’t think I succeeded.
What is your favourite ice cream flavour?
Vanilla. Nothing ever beats Vanilla. Booyah.
PS: Still not inspired? Read this.
