Why are there no digimon novels?

[Nate Hunter]

The novel would EXPLAIN how things in digimon work. Why wouldn't it?

It wouldn't explain how it works. It would simply present the world with a greater depth of detail than most fanfiction stories allow for. I hjaven't seen detailed explanations of Warp Drive mechanics in Star Trek novels or Hyperdrive, Lightsaber, or other specialized mechanics in Star Wars novels (yes, I like both ST and SW). Most of those types of things get reserved for specialized books for the fans.

There are, however, a few significant differences between a novel and a typical fanfiction series..

(1) A novel has depth of character. Most fan-fictions do not, as they simply adjust the characters to fit the story the authors wants to write.

(2) An initial novel, if not based on established characters, needs to present the characters as NEW people whom the reader is not familiar with. In a novel using established characters, this is less crucial, as you can assume the characters to be familiar to the readers.

(3) A novel presents a world with a sense of scale and reality. This means there needs to be some understanding developed of how anything that defies our sense of reality fits into the reality being developed in the story.

(4) A novel set within an established universe requires licensing, or permission, from the copyright owners of that universe. As Digimon is an established universe, you would need to have licensee permission from Bandai (or Disney/Sensation Animation) to write a novel based on Digimon. Even if you received that, it would probably be planned as a juvenile novel, for young children, so you'd have a limit to how much maturity could be involved.

Adult novels (aimed at mentally mature audiences, not pornographic stuff) explain what needs to be explained, when it needs to be explained, without going into the mechanics so far as to alienate the readers. Juvenile novels throw away anything extraneous to make something that's simply fun to read, with no regard to necessarily having intellectual value.

If someone can get Bandai to license a serious novel based on the Digimon universe, I would consider writing one, and I'm sure there are a few other fan-authors who would do the same. Until that happens, though, we can only do fanfiction for the entertainment value.