A leap into virtual world: Web novels, e-pages, audio broadcasts trending
Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, July 24
Welcome to the virtual world of literature. One must have thought that the shift to wired services is still years away. But thanks to ongoing pandemic, a spoiler is already out. Several city-based writers have stopped visiting the publishing houses to produce a hard copy of their creations and are now preferring to upload these via a variety of digital platforms available.
Even the hardcore of bookworms are more than ever inclined towards the use of PDF formats of the books available and are subscribing e-books and e-libraries to get the most suitable reading material that they want via digital modes. A large variety of e-books available on the Kindle app too has become a huge resource for the children to pick from.
Simran Bawa, a school passout, who is penning a novel nowadays, shares, “I am penning a 20-25 chapter novel – ‘A thing of beauty’ – which I am sharing chapterwise on Wattpad. I started writing my web novel in April.” It is going all smooth for him as more than 1,000 people have already read eight chapters of his. “They are demanding for a quick release of subsequent chapters,” he says, before adding, “This is already a big number for beginners like me!
I think the timing of my novel and the increasing use of digital media has been a massive help.”
Simran’s claim seems to reflect the truth considering the fact that the sudden change of medium has also acted as a springboard for the demand of new platforms that help in quick sharing, sorting and screening of web-based novels, e-books and audio broadcasts.
However, some of the avid readers are really missing the addition in their bookshelves these days and visiting their favourite bookstores in town. Dr Lakhvinder Johal, secretary general of Punjab Arts Council, is one of them. For nine years down the line, he had been publishing a paper titled ‘Kav Lok’ every Sunday, that has compositions of the best poets across the region. “But the pandemic forced me to go online. I am still going on with the paper but only in the digital version and have been sharing it on Facebook and the portal of the page,” he tells
Meanwhile, businessman Inderjit Paintal, who had taken to creative writing and had come up with fiction books, has of late switched over to a new mode of communication of his thoughts. “Besides writing short poems and sharing them on varied social media platforms, I have become a broadcast host for an audio programme called SageAdvice,” he quips. His job is to interact with people and discuss newer problems that people are grappling with like rising indulgence of children in gaming, loneliness issues the elderly face and interactions with the Covid patients.
