Periodical literature

These publications cover a wide variety of topics, from academic, technical, trade, and general interest to leisure and entertainment.

Other common features are reviews of recently published books and films, columns that express the authors' opinions about various topics, and advertisements.

An encyclopedia or dictionary is also a book, and might be called a serial publication if it is published in many different editions over time.

By contrast, a novel might be published in monthly parts, a method revived after the success of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.

[11] This approach is called part-publication, particularly when each part is from a whole work, or a serial, for example in comic books.

It flourished during the nineteenth century, for example with Abraham John Valpy's Delphin Classics, and was not restricted to fiction.

Postal services often carry periodicals at a preferential rate; for example, Second Class Mail in the United States only applies to publications issued at least quarterly.