Citizendia

A webserial is a written work of literature available primarily or solely on the Internet. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks The term comes from old serial stories that were once published regularly in newspapers. The term " serial " refers to the intrinsic property of a series &mdash namely its order. A newspaper is a written Publication containing News, information and Advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called Newsprint. They are also sometimes referred to as 'webcomics without pictures'. Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are Comics Published on a Website, often exclusively providing easy access to an Unlike an online novel or e-book, it is not compiled and published as a whole; instead, it is released on the Internet in chapters as they are finished, although published compilations and anthologies are not unknown. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story An e-book (for electronic book: also ebook) is the Digital media equivalent of a conventional printed Book. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks It compares to a novel the same way a webcomic compares to a published comic book. Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are Comics Published on a Website, often exclusively providing easy access to an A comic book (often shortened to simply comic and sometimes called a comic paper or comic magazine) is a Magazine or Book of narrative

Webserials and webcomics are often read by similar crowds, and may compete with each other for their attention. Webserials based on wholly original work are considerably less popular than similar webcomics; however, the webserial holds dominance in the category of fan fiction, probably because of the relative ease. Fan fiction (alternately referred to as fanfiction, fanfic, FF or fic) is a broadly defined term for Fiction about characters or settings While the term 'webserial' itself is somewhat rare with under 1,000 results as a Google Search Term at current, the kind of episodic writing it describes is not.

Contents

The Medium

Webserials typically come in three main styles of plot cohesiveness. One is self-contained, a storytelling style which has no or little plot connections between installments. Stories are tied together by their 'universe', subject matter, atmosphere, or plot structure. Stories such as these are very often surrealist or vignettes, although some authors do use this format simply to gain the ability to switch characters on a regular basis. Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members

The next is loose continuity. Loose continuity stories share the same 'universe' or 'world' by default, and tie into a grander story. However, while the plot arcs are designed to be read to their maximum benefit by those who are most familiar with the world, it is not so self-referential that it becomes impossible to follow for a new reader without aid. Loose continuity stories can simply be individual units, or can take a mini-series feel - they may run in tightly cohesive, short arcs that must be read from the beginning, but only a basic familiarization with the premise may be necessary to enjoy each specific story arc. A miniseries (also mini-series) in a serial Storytelling medium is a production which tells a story in a pre-planned limited number of episodes

The last is tightly cohesive. As the name implies, webserials of this type very closely intertwine episodes or chapters with each other, and depend on the reader being familiar with as much of the story beforehand as possible. They are often meant to be read as one would read a book, though obviously accounting for better and more frequent natural breaks in the plot than a book would usually require.

Publication

Up-and-coming webserial authors enjoy a benefit webcomic artists do not - text is the accepted, dominant medium of the internet and images are not. It is much easier to publish a webserial with little resources at your disposal and make it look palatable. Online journal services such as LiveJournal and Xanga often play a role as an impromptu host for webserials. A blog (a contraction of the term " Web log " is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary descriptions of LiveJournal (often abbreviated LJ) is a Virtual community where Internet users can keep a Blog, Journal or Diary. Xanga (ˈzæŋgə is a website that hosts weblogs, Photoblogs and social networking profiles. Those few who openly elect to use it in preference to other mediums favor the built-in RSS broadcasting, and often rely on stories that can stand alone fairly well, as neither service makes reading a full set of archives a particularly easy task. RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works – such as Blog entries news headlines audio and video – in a standardized

Another popular format is use of the internet forum. An, or message board, is a Bulletin board system in the form of a discussion site Unlike the abovementioned services, forums and messageboards do allow for easy sequential viewing of stories, and have the added benefit of quick commenting as well as providing a social venue for the community. A free forum service such as ProBoards, Ezboard, or Invisionfree may be used to create a board for that webserial, or the webserial may be a feature of a larger board in order to benefit from its traffic. ProBoards is a free remotely hosted message board service that facilitates online discussions by allowing people to create their own online communities ezboard Inc, based in San Francisco, California, United States, is a provider of free and paid hosted Internet forums Description InvisionFree (also known as IF is a free Internet forum software created by Zathyus Networks.

Those who move away from true blogs often choose to keep a similar format to the blog when they establish their own website. A blog (a contraction of the term " Web log " is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary descriptions of A few, however, make use of the webcomic layout, citing its familiarity. Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are Comics Published on a Website, often exclusively providing easy access to an Shorter stories are often typical of those who use a webcomic layout, though this is not universally true.

Business

Webserials are cheaper to run than webcomics for the most part, although the returns are not much better, if at all. Most authors must pay for the costs out of their own pockets, though the significantly lower bandwidth strain of text instead of pictures may make the expenses more bearable. Hosting and advertisement costs are still just as much a concern for webserial authors as webcomic artists.

Donations and 'tip jars' are the primary way of getting money for webserials, often using services such as PayPal. PayPal is an E-commerce business allowing payments and Money transfers to be made through the Internet. These are sometimes sufficient to cover the basic costs for hosting, and some of the more popular webserials can succeed with their entire budget made from donations of this type.

A few webserial authors have taken to collecting their work and releasing in a book format for easy consumption off-line. Self-publishing is key in this field, and services such as CafePress and Lulu.com are often used for distribution and sales of these anthologies. CafePresscom is an online Retailer that produces and dispatches user-customized products on demand including teeshirts bags mugs wallclocks and calendars

In recent years, commercial publishers have also started up to email webserials to subscribers. One of the first sites to do this was Keep It Coming (KIC), which operated from October 2003 through November 2005. The success of this venture has led to the creation of other portals such as Readers Retreat and Virtual Tales.

Fan Fiction

Although webserials are not very popular as a medium in their own right, they are employed extensively by the internet fan fiction culture, and are the primary format for longer works of fan fiction online. Fan fiction (alternately referred to as fanfiction, fanfic, FF or fic) is a broadly defined term for Fiction about characters or settings Many fan fiction achieves (such as the popular Fanfiction.net achieve) are set up to accommodate and encourage the publication of serial works. } FanFictionNet (often abbreviated as FFNet or FFN) is an automated Fan fiction archive site

See also

External links

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic