When Charles Dickens first put pen to parchment, his novels were released as serials in newspapers, and later made available as chapbooks. Durrant Editions has reprinted David Copperfield in its original form, complete with ads for packing cases for globes, and E. Moses and Sons Tailors which retained its own poet to write copy.

The modern equivalent might be authors like Dave Wellington, whose vampire novel Thirteen Bullets is being released serially online, with a new chapter added every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Wellington originally released his first novel, Monster Island, online when he could not secure a publisher for it. It built a dedicated following which, in the kind of interesting twist often witnessed with the Internet, then helped it secure a publishing deal with Thunder's Mouth Press. The book and its sequels Monster Nation and Monster Planet are still available online; you can even download a version to read on your iPod. Monster Island is now available in paper format from Amazon.

I'm not usually a fan of the horror genre, but Wellington's fast-paced narration and gritty characterization won me over. And the fact that it's available for free and online sealed the deal.

Thom Wong is a law student who spends an unreasonable amount of time online. His 40 bLinks column runs every Monday and Thursday on The Tyee. What's he all about? Click here.

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