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Inclusion Criteria for Works

Work listed in the Electronic Literature Directory must be published in electronic format, either on the Web or on computer-readable media. We don't include works that have been exhibited in a physical exhibition space but not distributed to readers via the Web or on disk. Audio CDs, audiotapes, videotapes, and video DVDs are not eligible. We list only publications that could not be published in print without sacrificing or altering significant elements, such as multimedia content or interactive features. For inclusion in the ELD, a work must contain at least one of the qualifying electronic elements listed below. Note that most e-books do not qualify for inclusion. Printed works are also ineligible, even if they make use of hypertextual elements or some other type of non-electronic interactivity. Genres suitable for the ELD are listed below. If you are in doubt about the suitability of a particular work for inclusion, please contact the Database Director.

Suitable genres:

• poetry
• fiction
• drama (excluding most digitized movies)
• nonfiction of the following types:
  • creative nonfiction
  • literary criticism and theory
  • personal narrative or autobiography
  • in general anything else of interest to a literary audience

Unsuitable works:

• nonfiction of the following types:
  • reporting of news items
  • reference works or encyclopedia articles
  • manuals, instructional materials, self-help books
  • highly technical material
  • advertising
  • in general anything else not of interest to a literary audience
• digitized movies (unless they contain interactive elements)
• recorded songs
• work that contains no written or spoken text
• excerpts from longer works, unless the excerpts are self-contained (such as a complete poem from a collection)

Qualifying electronic elements:

• audio or video (this may consist of the text being read or performed)
• animation
• prominent graphical or visual elements that play a vital role in the work
• hypertext or other interactive elements
• reader collaboration (any reader is allowed to contribute new text to the work, which then becomes a permanent part of the work)
• text generation (rules and random processes determine how words are combined during a reading)

Elements that don't qualify a work for inclusion:

• standard e-book features:
  • hypertext index or table of contents
  • links to footnotes
  • full-text search capability
  • electronic bookmarks
• minimal use of graphics (such as ornamental fonts for titles)
• nonvariable text produced by a text-generating program if the text-generating code is not part of the work itself
• text that incorporates the symbols or syntax of computer code, the jargon of chat room discussion, or other types of textual content associated with computers