Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online (Japanese: ソードアート・オンライン Hepburn: Sōdo Āto Onrain) is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. Sword Art Online was first written in 2002 for ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Game Novel Prize. However, the original draft was over the page limit for submissions, and unable to cut it down, Kawahara published it online under a pseudonym. In 2008 he won the grand prize in the same contest with Accel World, which began publication soon after. Later, an edited version of the SAO web novel series began publication. The series was licensed by Yen Press's Yen On division and began English publication in April 2014. On average, it releases three volumes a year, a pace similar to the original Japanese version.