Payback - the evolving digital novel

What is a Dialogue Novel?

Just as picture books are evolving (they now include apps or ways of creating them in the digital format), a dialogue novel is a new form of digital novel.

is a dialogue novel to be published on Twitter, Facebook and this blog; it's being published where teens and 20-somethings hang out, commenting and interacting.

Purists will clearly have an opinion--a dialogue novel is the equivalent of skipping over description and only reading the dialogue. This is what reluctant readers often do. But young adults are clearly into conversation. According to many social media gurus, this is the Age of Conversation. So reading dialogue only, while not the pure form of a novel, is still reading a story, with action, characterization, story, emotion: Bottom line--it's reading in a new digital age format.

The benefits? It's timely. Like TV episodes, each episode will be published a couple of times a week. It also gives readers a chance to interact. You can comment on the story or characters, ask why one character chose to act in a certain way, and even suggest plot lines. Essentially, dialogue novels are interactive--readers can play a part--or just hang out and watch while others interact. It's a place to go every week to read the next episode, to chat in REAL time about what you just read, to interact with other readers who may love or hate the episode. It's about conversation. And it's about getting more people reading.

As a young adult author of the Sassy Series and Game Face, getting more people reading is always a goal. Whether it's for escapism, education, to feel stuff, identifying with characters--whatever the reason, my aim is to put dialogue novels into cyberspace so that people can read anywhere, anytime and in any format.

That's not to say novels are on their way out. I plan to publish The Sassy Series soon, followed by Game Face and I'm already writing my fifth novel. Dialogue novels are not here to replace novels, but to co-exist with novels--a little like people read comics or magazines or newspapers, or people read paperbacks and novels on iPads.

Now you can read works of fiction on social media.

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