Virtual novel

Virtual novel is a new phenomenon in internet publishing. The term seems to have originated with William Gibson. Unlike a paper novel there is no reason why the virtual novel should ever be completed unless the author simply becomes bored with it or the novel achieves perfection. Given that perfect novels are so rare as to be non-existent the latter is unlikely. See and for a couple of examples.
Also as the virtual novel is not confined to print, it may contain embedded music as MP3s, video clips, referenced links to other websites etc.
If the virtual novel ever makes it into paper form - which is by no means required - this would simply be Novel Title Release 1.0 and the author is still free to continue adding more sections, editing already existing sections indefinitely. For example If George Eliot had written Middlemarch as a virtual novel the edition of that novel that we have now would be Middlemarch 1.0 and minor edits would have produced Middlemarch 1.01, 1.02 etc; major edits would have produced Middlemarch 1.1, 1.2 and if she had even considered introducing new characters that would have produced Middlemarch 2.0 and so forth.
Given that there are many aspiring novelists, that it's difficult to find a paper publisher and that it's cheap and easy to publish on-line the phenonomon is likely to increase.

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