The article for the first time tests some methods of distant reading on the material of KarachayBalkarian novels. The object of the study is the texts of 55 fiction works in the Karachay-Balkar language (mainly novels). Based on the analyzed texts, as well as some related meta-information, conclusions are drawn about the dynamics of publication activity in relation to Karachay-Balkarian novels - in particular, an unprecedented decrease in such activity since 2011 is indicated (only two published novels were found during this period). For the first time, the method Delta for calculation of intertextual distances (together with tree-like clusterization) was applied to the samples of Karachay-Balkarian literature, once again confirming its high efficiency. In addition to the unmistakable attribution of the analyzed texts, the generated tree structure is characterized by the presence of two branches (Karachay and Balkarian), as well as two sub-branches within the Balkarian branch. At the same time, intraBalkarian dialects are not revealed on the tree. The chronological principle has been found: the work located the furthest on the tree from the other works of the same author is always published either earlier than all the others, or later than all the others.