Novelr is a blog about fiction - both online and offline. 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 is a blog?

A blog is basically a website, made up of posts or entries, arranged from the newest at the top to the oldest at the bottom. It is a short form of the term weB LOG. You should be familiar with what blogs are, because Novelr is a one! More information here and here.

Alright then, what’s a blook?

Ahhah. 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.

Another introduction on what Novelr plans to be about can be found in the very first post.

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)

About Eli James

Eli James 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 do you want Novelr to be?
I want it to be a place to chart the ways literature and the web mashes together, and hopefully as a platform for other aspiring authors to gain feedback or to get recognition. I’ll be talking about the various changes that may or may not affect us - the readers, the thinkers, the writers. And I must admit: I think it’ll be quite an adventure.

PS: Still not inspired? Read this.