Will we ever read fiction online?

Over the last 10 years we have seen the internet transform or obsolete industries that haven't had any major changes in decades. We've watched magazines and newspapers lose circulation as readers abandoned their dead tree publishing for their online edition. We've watched the RIAA get dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Movie rentals can finally happen online. Youtube like sites could be the replacement for "channel surfing". We can make phone call over the internet. However, inspite of all of this, there is almost no market for reading fiction online.

This fact has lead many to suggest that we'll never read fiction online. Others will claim that we will, but it'll be limited to short stories or flash fiction. Based on the continued failure of electronic book devices to bring us constantly failing ebooks, it's not surprising that many want to throw in the towel on long form online fiction. I, however, am still optimistic about blog fiction someday going mainstream. I think it's only a matter of time until something evolves to the point where we're reading fiction online.

As Novelr points out, it would appear that blog fiction is perfect for short stories and short serials. At least we can all agree on that. You could read a blog fiction just like any other. Subscribe to the feed and when there's a new entry go read it. One entry by itself is easy to read once in a while. The problem is that once we've written a lot of posts, people will want to read our fictional blogs from the start. That can be a lot of on screen text to read "for fun".

It's that last point I think is the only thing holding back online fiction. It is just hard to read a lot of text on the computer - it can strain the eyes. It's a lot easier to read a book in bed than a laptop screen. It's more relaxing to sit in your recliner than your computer chair. So, to get more people to read our fictional blogs we have to ask this question:

How do we easily beam our online content to a device that's affordable, portable, and pleasurable to read?

I think that once that question is answered, online fiction will explode. Think of all the possibilities:

• When we find a new fictional blog that we like, we can just enter the url into our bookreader and go to the beach and read its archives.
• Free ad-supported eBooks. Where the ads are imbedded in the text. Or you can buy the ad-free version.
• ebooks that have a 2.0 version instead of 2nd publishing
• Dozens of other innovations no one has dreamed up yet

As far as "a device that's affordable, portable, and pleasurable to read" I can't really help with that. However, I am a programmer so maybe I can help with "easily beam our online content" part. Another goal I've set for myself is to look up and maybe develop tools that can format our blogs so that they can be read by existing (and crappy) eReaders and other mobile devices. That way, once someone engineers the fictional device described above, we can be ready to fill it with our awesome fictional blogs. Also, maybe, we can help beam content to the existing crap we have today.

Any pointers or suggestions of where to start looking would be more than helpful.

9 tips for a better blog fiction website

I've been reading a lot of blog fiction for the last couple months. Some have been easier to read than others and not because of what words they used. I'm talking about easier because of how the website has been laid out. I've compile a list of things that all fictional bloggers would do so that it's easier on my eyes and my mouse-clicking-finger. I know now that I made a couple of these very mistakes on my own blog fiction. When I relaunch I'll fix them.

1.) Next and Previous links for individual posts.
When I'm reading through the archives of a blog fiction, I like to click through one at a time. That way, when reading I get into a groove. Read the post, read the comments if any, click next. If there's no next button I have to look over or click over to the archives and slows down my reading time.

2.) Let a headline be clickable
Going off of the first point. Most blogs let you click the headline to look at an individual post. There are still some that don't. Please, don't make me scroll to the end of your post and click some small '#' or the word 'Permalink' just to read your comments or to get back into the groove I was talking about in number 1.

3.) Readable font
Make your writing large and easy to read. I hate having to tell my webbrowser to enlarge all text. It might make the content more readable, but will often break the margins of your sidebar and other formatting. Besides font size, be sure to pick a font type that's easy to read on the screen. One time I was reading a blog and I had firefox increase the font size. I quickly realized that no matter how big the font was, it was still hard to read. Novelr has tips on which font types to use.

4.) Double space Paragraphs
Always have a space in between paragraphs. Dead tree publishers can get away with cramming as much text together as possible. As a digital writer, you cannot. There are few thing harder on the eyes than a whole bunch of text crammed together with no spacing to help break it up. Especially if they are short paragraphs.

5.) Easy to navigate to first page and archives.
So let's say I find a new fictional blog(woohoo!). Now I want to read the story from the beginning. Now what do I do? Until someone catches up with reading your entire archive, they are going to come to your homepage and then click directly to the archives. Please make the archives link easy to find.

6.) Link back to old references
One of the few advantages that us digital publishers have over our dead tree counterparts is that it's sooooooo easy to reference past events. Not all readers can remember everything in a long work of fiction, especially one delivered in instalments. A novel could be ruined if everytime a minor character is mentioned it says next to their name(pg 41), but for a blog fiction writer you can just create a link back to when that character was first introduced. It may be extra work for you, but your infrequent readers will thank you. And who knows, maybe it'll turn your infrequent reader into a regular.

7) Make RSS feed readily available
This is tip not just for fictional bloggers, but for all bloggers. Lots of people use rss aggregators to read their favorite blogs. No reason to believe that a reader of a fictional blog wouldn't do the same.

8) Don't overwhelm your readers with widgets and gizmos
Another tip that's for all bloggers not just the fictional ones. Sometimes, less is more. I hate having to sift through 14 gadgets, 83 directory links, and 34 "cool links" just to find your archives link.

9.) Don't make it hard or impossible to find the publishing dates.
Alright, so maybe this one isn't a hard and fast rule so much as a pet peeve of mine. I hate it when I can't readily find out the date an item was published. I use that too gage how often a blog is updated or if it's currently active. Also I don't like it when the date isn't listed for each post. For instance it's laid out where it lists the date and then just shows all the posts from that date. So, if I want hte date on a post I have to scroll through 2, 3, or 4 other posts... grr! Like I said - pet peeve.

Follow these 9 rules 8 rules and 1 pet peeve and I bet your readers will thank you for it. I know of at least one reader that will. Do you have tips for writers to make their blogs more readable?