What makes a webnovel different from a light Novel?

[OP1000]

How do you properly distinguish between a webnovel and a light novel?

 

[Kilolo]

webnovel published on website, light novel published on paper. that's all there's to it.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Detailed info from Wikipedia (click on the blue name for the Wikipedia site)

Webnovel/web fiction :
Web fiction is written works of literature available primarily or solely on the Internet. A common type of web fiction is the web serial. The term comes from old serial stories that were once published regularly in newspapers and magazines.

Unlike most modern books, a work of web fiction is often not published as a whole. Instead, it is released on the Internet in installments or chapters as they are finished, although published compilations and anthologies are not unknown. The web serial form dominates in the category of fan fiction, as writing a serial takes less specialized software and often less time than an ebook.

Light novel :​

A light novel (ライトノベル, raito noberu) is a style of Japanese young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students.[1][2] The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Light novels are often called ranobe (ラノベ)[3] or, in English, LN. The average length of a light novel is about 50,000 words,[4] and is published in the bunkobon format (A6, 10.5 cm×14.8 cm or 4.1"x5.8"). Light novels are subject to dense publishing schedules, with new installations being published in 6-9 month intervals.


A light novel bookstore in Macau

Light novels are commonly illustrated in a manga art style, and are often adapted into manga and anime. While most light novels are published only as books, some have their chapters first serialized monthly in anthology magazines before being collected and compiled into book format, similar to how manga is published.

 

[Twin]

Webnovels without exceptions are always episodic in nature as they are uploaded one chapter at a time. Light novel on the other hand are usually not as they are sold in book stores volume wise. Other than this there is not a large point of difference.

 

[FiendsForHire]

One is written by spiders. The other is written by the sun.

 

[TotallyHuman]

webnovels are disgusting sites that are literally Chinese spyware, light novels are disgusting books that are sold by the Japs

 

[DarkeReises]

Yes.

 

[Arkus86]

Web novels are published chapter by chapter on the internet and often serve as an urefined draft for future light novels, published as actual books with proper formating and editing.

 

[BlackKnightX]

A web novel is as its name implies: a novel written and posted on a website. That’s it. A light novel, on the other hand, is only limited to a Japanese particular niche of novel. It’s professionally published and is usually in the book form.

I know there are a lot of authors claiming their works to be light novels, but not really; like I said, light novel is a term only used to describe a particular niche of novel in Japan—mostly targeting teenagers and young teens; something akin to YA novels in English literature. The English imitation of that is called OELN (Original English Light Novel) which is still growing and in development.

So, put it simply, a web novel is a novel posted on a website; a light novel is a Japanese’s professionally published YA novel with its own trope and shit.

 

[Maze_Runner]

How do you properly distinguish between a webnovel and a light novel?

 

[ThanksALot]

I mean, don't a lot of recent light novels begin as webnovels?
So it's just where it's published.

I read the Shield hero webnovel then the light novel, and it's just edited at first. The story changes after some books, though.
Oh, and it has art!

 

[DeviousColony69]

Webnovels is literally what you think: novels that are published in the internet or website (ScribbleHub is one of the examples)

Light Novels, on the other hand literally is 'light' since the book is pretty thin unlike western books and it contains around 30,000-50,000 words

 

[AetherialCore]

webnovels are disgusting sites that are literally Chinese spyware, light novels are disgusting books that are sold by the Japs

guys... I think this human hasn't realized that almost all modern light novels are from 'narou' web novels. should we tell him?

 

[NotOriginal]

Webnovels are just non-canon Light Novels.

 

[Tsuru]

guys... I think this human hasn't realized that almost all modern light novels are from 'narou' web novels. should we tell him?

That is a good question.
Problem, judging from his "attitude" and his name, i fear he is a "keyboard warrior" (chinese term) that spray/rage on internet with a negative IQ.
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Web novel = novel written on the web, it can be english/japanese/korean/chinese

Light novel = japanese novels with "anime" style published on paper and sold in bookstores + artist is hired to do illustrations with it. BEFORE it was common for a author to start a series with a LN ; but NOW its common and near all authors start with a WN to "test the waters". If a WN get popular (often ranked high in weekly rankings) and/or good plot, the author can be sollicited by companies to get manga or LN publishing. THEN if said manga or LN is popular, the anime will appear.
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Random facts (i am bored, hopefully everyone will like them)

1) For info, even if someone wrote 2+ chaps of a semblance of a story, that means it is a webnovel.
2) In chinese webnovels, among the masterpieces of the past, one is famous because of it's crappy quality. "Invisible dragon". Just like a movie can become famous for being the worst movie in history, this CN (chinese novel) is the same. Some people theory that it was written by a kindergarten kid or by a smart dude that aimed that all along for popularity. You can think like the notoriety of 177013.
3) Like youhei said, "narou" is the number 1 website for WN of japan (R18 not accepted). Mushoku Tensei for example, is the grandpa of all current isekais. He is the one that popularized the term "isekai" (creating the trend) despite not being the first one (Inuyasha and co are earlier). It was among the early webnovels, even earlier than NO GAME NO LIFE, but its only now we get the anime.
4) Syosetu is the R18 website for ero web novels of japan. There are others though.
5) Pixiv jp website also welcome all kinds of original WN. Both safe and R18. Mostly fanfictions. Lately they accept chinese works too and english. If someone have a rare fetish but crave for a R18novel, going to archiveonourown website works but going to syosetsu/pixiv is best solution.
6) The difference of time. Often webnovels have a fast advancement in plot compared to manga/anime/LN. Ex: one can have 100+ chapters but LN publishing only did 1 volume of 15 chaps. Manga ? Even worse because they are often MONTHLY chaps. Some monthly mangas like Youjo senki or older ones, are barely scratching the surface of the plot, meanwhile the web novel is already finished, mushoku tensei manga is also example.
7) You dont know but the manhuas are stories from 10+ years ago hence why they were full of faceslaps and trash plots. But in raw chinese webnovels they had lot of good stories (but lof crap ones too). Its only recently you can see bilibili doing publication of manhuas of some really good chinese webnovels. A few of them being "I dont follow cards accordine to the routine" / "Saint of humanity".
8) Funnily manhua Luo Wuji is as good as Lin Fan and both urban cultivation but do you know that the CN of Luo Wuji have the same title of LinFan chinese novel but only one word of difference ? (Rebirth of the immortal blablabla)
9) Chineses have more accustomed to web novels then other countries. Because access to computers and their artists were utterly garbage hence cant do mangas like japan. So the only remaining way to do a story was to write them on internet.
10) There are hundreds of thousands of chinese web novels raws. Also if human translation of a CN is barely 50+chaps, it can have 500+ chaps available in the raws. Also translators are humans hence prefer picking novels they prefer. Lately too translators numbers are dropping like crazy because everyone want money and translating is often not worth it even if you solicite donations.
11) Do you know that in fact the majority of chinese novels readers like "fighting" plots but dont know that "urban" genre have ton of novels ? Singer MC. Movie director MC. Mangaka/anime-creator MC. Dad MC. Sign-in system. Talk to past self plot. Livestream. Variety show MCs. Shop plot. Being reborn in america or korea or japan. Being in the past. Dying and returning 24 hours ago. Predicting the future. Craftman. Sweet romance.
12) In fact chinese authors also have it hard because of censoring. One rare CN "Datang idyll" (completed) luckily dodged censoring and criticizing corruption.
13) Censoring is less now there. Now their authors can write women being killed by the MC compared to before. But MC being a killer etc are still a no-no but not banned and just forcing author to modify slightly the details. Censoring also depend on the style/genre plot.
14) Even chinese readers disdain the chinese web novels full of faceslaps. Mocking them as third rate etc. Yep. Depending on destiny you could a see a 2022 urban CN character say it.
15) Last thing. Because of saturation but also because of how good plot potentials, funnily it created a weird phenomenon.
China : some fantasy novels (some isekai-type with elves etc) and ero novels are better than japan (detailed gestures vs crappy jp moans)
Japan : better game plots (cough SAO cough) than korea
Korea : better wuxia/xianxia than china (Return of mount hua manhwa)

PS : I crave for a mixed style of japanese+chinese. Japanese goes too overboard and chinese is too serious, korean is too dramatic-tragic. One rare novel that can show you that the fusion is the best is "The luckiest man" with urban+portals. Random spoilers : First power of MC is causing the enemy have a chance to kneel / A group of assassins died in their car when they tried to kidnap MC's sister without doing anything / lucky MC felt speechless+pity when an enemy activated his too op invincible-zone-power that force MC to play 3 times dices without cheating (if one can't do a double 6 the person dies, but 3x hence near-impossible and making this enemy arrogant but turning mad-scared the more MC succeeded)

 

[Jemini]

A web novel is as its name implies: a novel written and posted on a website. That’s it. A light novel, on the other hand, is only limited to a Japanese particular niche of novel. It’s professionally published and is usually in the book form.

I know there are a lot of authors claiming their works to be light novels, but not really; like I said, light novel is a term only used to describe a particular niche of novel in Japan—mostly targeting teenagers and young teens; something akin to YA novels in English literature. The English imitation of that is called OELN (Original English Light Novel) which is still growing and in development.

So, put it simply, a web novel is a novel posted on a website; a light novel is a Japanese’s professionally published YA novel with its own trope and shit.

Not...really. I mean, the popular market for Light novels these days is primarily out of Japan, but that's not how it is by the definition of the term "Light novel."

What the term literally means in the literary world is a book that is between 50K and 70K words long (as opposed to a novella which has less than 40K words, or a full length novel with 80K+ words. Yes, there are 10K word gaps between the definitions where it could be called either way). Most western publishers prefer to release full novels. The main reason Japan has found a niche for light novels is due to the long-form story format in Japan, which has been adapted into light novel serial stories. As in, a story that continues from one novel to another (provided they can create some kind of 1 LN long arc contained within the greater story) instead of being fully self-contained in a single book, or becoming a trilogy at max.

This Japanese trend of long-form story-telling was first pioneered for the Mana format, which primed the market for this style of story-telling. This is also the reason why the Japanese were extra receptive to the webnovel format when it became a thing, and then these webnovel authors later got the chance to adapt their stories into light-novel serials.

(It's also worth noting that the light-novel serial format of publishing has grown popular enough in Japan that sometimes they now like to stretch the use of the term "light-novel" a little bit beyond it's official definition. In this manner, they have started using the term "light-novel" more for branding purposes rather than being books that adhear to the strict word-count associated with the definition. Several Japanese-origin "light-novels" actually have word-counts that meet the definition of full novel.)

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

How do you properly distinguish between a webnovel and a light novel?

Webnovel is on the web

 

[Ai-chan]

How do you properly distinguish between a webnovel and a light novel?

Webnovel is published on the web. Originally, webnovels refered only to amateur novels. But with the rise of internet publishing, you also get webnovels published by major brands.

Light novel refers specifically to Japanese traditionally published young adults novels, as in on paper. Their characteristics are generally shallow, easy to read and exciting professional novels. English novels are not called light novels, they're called young adults. Chinese novels are not light novels, they're light fiction. Light novel refers specifically to Japanese novels as it's a term coined by Japanese.

Yes there are westerners who claim that they write 'light novels', but in their publishing culture, that's not called 'light novel' but 'young adults novel' or simply 'YA novels'. The writers just call it 'light novel' to cash in on the light novel popularity, usually without realizing what light novels actually are and their characteristics.

 

[Jemini]

Light novel refers specifically to Japanese traditionally published young adults novels, as in on paper. Their characteristics are generally shallow, easy to read and exciting professional novels. English novels are not called light novels, they're called young adults. Chinese novels are not light novels, they're light fiction. Light novel refers specifically to Japanese novels as it's a term coined by Japanese.

As I stated before, there's nothing specifically Japanese about light novels. The term "light novel" refers to a novel with 50K to 70K words. It's just that they are more popular in Japan due to various circumstances than they are in the western market, but you used to find them in the west quite a bit more frequently than you do today.

The only thing specifically Japanese is the Light Novel serial, which is a series of Light Novels that tell a single continuous story. (And this serial format is the thing that has caused the rise in popularity of Light Novels in Japan.)

 

[TotallyHuman]

Problem, judging from his "attitude" and his name, i fear he is a "keyboard warrior" (chinese term) that spray/rage on internet with a negative IQ.

No, I am not! I have long achieved harmony between man and keyboard, and with a keyboard in my heart, myriad things become a keyboard, even the Sun above is naught but a trackpoint(TM). I am no keyboard warrior, I am God of Keyboards