Web fiction

Web fiction is written work of literature available primarily or solely on the Internet. A common type of web fiction is the webserial. The term comes from old serial stories that were once published regularly in newspapers and magazines. They are also sometimes referred to as 'webcomics without pictures', although many do use images as illustrations to supplement the text.

Unlike a book, a web fiction is often not compiled and published as a whole. Instead, it is released on the Internet in installments or chapters as they are finished, although published compilations and anthologies are not unknown. The webserial form dominates in the category of fan fiction, as writing a serial takes less specialized software and often less time than an ebook.

Web-based fiction dates to the earliest days of the World Wide Web, including the extremely popular The Spot (1995 - 1997), a tale told through characters' journal entries and interactivity with its audience.The Spot spawned many similar sites, including Ferndale and East Village, though these were not as successful and did not last long. Most of these early ventures are no longer in existence.

Over the past few years, the primary medium for publishing webserials has been the blog. Some webserials have supplementary blogs for updates, news, or fictional blogs for the characters themselves.

LiveJournal is also a popular platform for web serials due to its large userbase and integrated communities. Some webserials are published on Livejournal directly, whereas some have LiveJournal communities for reader discussion and feedback.

Some webserials are produced on content management systems such as Drupal, WordPress, or Joomla, which may integrate blogs directly into the site and also have many custom add-ons (such as for integrating social networking services such as Twitter or Facebook).

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