Web novel

A web novel is "a literary work that is published mainly or exclusively on the Internet." Wikipedia treats the name as a subsection of its web fiction article: the web novel is the work itself, and "most web novels are written as serials," released in installments as they are finished. The form inherits from newspaper and magazine serials that predate the internet by centuries, keeps entry barriers low so unknown writers can build an audience without a traditional publisher, and has become a commercial force, with web fiction revenues in China topping US$2.5 billion.

For writers the word does precise work beside its neighbors: Shōsetsuka ni Narō is a web novel site, the Korean web novel is a national market of them, and the decisions specific to the form, length, cadence, platform, are mapped in how to write a web novel.