I am pretty sure you can tick/untick a part that saiys "joining webtoon contest"; when creating a comic. There might be some newish creators that miss that detail; is all I can think off.
Honestly, with the tab having so much exposure as their own tab and less competion on webtoons; I can´t see why´d you not want to enter anyways. You can always decline if you happen to win haha.
@theyaoiarmy
I'm QUAKING at the thought of July actually lol. I feel like there's gonna be a barrage of people posting (myself included haha) all within one week or something. The question is how many people come out of that with decent readership?
@beta1042
OH MY GOD If they do have a machine weeding out small MB comics, my comic is done for lol. There are like 36 fully rendered panels in our prologue but we compressed it enough for it to be around 3MB when uploaded. Hhh I mean the rest of our chapters would be like 40 to 50+ panels but still we'd only ever reach 9MB max if we compress the same way. I feel like they should just judge based on sight/quality. MB size is a little deceiving.
Hey guys~
I've read the rules and although I'm not in any sort of contract with Tapas, do you think I've disqualified myself by publishing both on Tapas and Webtoons?
I know... I used the word "publishing", but according to my understanding, I can delete the series here on Tapas should I so choose, and my series is fully owned by me and no one else.
I've seen a lot of creators here on Tapas post their work solely on Webtoons, which I can understand since you want to drive your readers there. (Because seriously, if given the choice, who would want to leave their home app for a site that doesn't even notify if someone replied to you?)
But I'm such a small fry, I'd be happy to build up a decent following on either site. Not pulling out of the contest, but would like to know if I've just disqualified myself... It's been really bugging me...
@miramiee I think it depends on the category, and even if you are in the feels category, you would only need to fill out 6 episodes of 40 panels throughout the whole duration... in other words, you can have a total of 16 episodes with 10 of them only having 15 panels, so long as the remaining 6 have the required 40... Not that that's ideal if you're updating only once a week, and want to build up some meaningful tension...
At least that's how I understood things. 
Looking at all these contest submission it seems like this contest isn't going to be easy, especially when you have pro's such as the Yaoi Army , Isakytm, Momo ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) and MsArtisticStuff.... Basically people that should of been featured a long time ago...
I agree. I believe that their weeding out process will first begin with the art style or the cover. Either they like it or they don't. Then they'll move on to the first episode post and see how the art and paneling along with story telling works (and checking to see how well it fits the vertical scrolling format though i don't think they'll be very nit picky about it unless the formatting is bad to the point of being unreadable).
I think the audience engagement isn't an overall popularity contest as much as how engaged your readers are with your comic. So say you have 2,000 subscribers and get 1,000 likes, that is a 50% audience engagement compared to say a series with 10,000 and 1,000 likes (engagement of 10%) That is a much fairer way of measuring engagement because I believe webtoons want readers to actually like and comment on the content their gonna pick as a winner an feature so having less "ghost" subscribers will be in your advantage. They also said that they'll take audience engagement on an individual case by case basis so they won't compare a small series from a new creator to a bigger one from a veteran as that'll be taken into account of the veteran having an old fanbase.
wow I'm looking at all the entries and there are so many good ones! This competition will definitely be tough and will only get more difficult once July comes (cause I saw a lot of creators are planning on posting during that month) But hopefully the contest will remain in good spirits with not too many down voters/senseless trolls.
Also guys, do you think webtoon will ever consider choosing a comic that portrays/contains taboo/sensitive themes? I know just recently they've been pumping out lgbt comics and even added a pride month but what about stuff like mental illness? I know Line is still primarily an Asian run company and in general especially in Asia, mental illness is not looked well upon and often shoved under the rug/completely disregarded (actually I created the comic as a way to combat the stigma and hopefully foster understanding) . I saw another comic like mine dealing with such a topic but i'm afraid the stigma kinda makes the competition pointless to enter for such a story? Because whether I like it or not, certain things are just not as well accepted in society like how violence is much better in accepted in media than sex
I believe they already know whom will win... or get close. They have certain comics in mind they wish to favor, but are open to finding better.
Why do I say this? It's very simple: the contest is partially judged on audience participation and yet the audience can't tell who is in the contest unless they actually get into the comic and look at dates. Secondly, they aren't about audience participation at Webtoons; they are about pushing an agenda (cultural, social, national, regional, etc), as evidenced by how they structure their site and the "discovery" area. Third, they aren't highlighting any works from the contest, so the contest entries mean little to them or the outcome of the contest. They should have a contest page that shows off the contest works, maybe with a "slot machine" to randomly present icons of 5 entries for a visitor to try before going into the big bin of entries. Fourth: due to how they structured, the money is merely there as a lure to get traffic going. Most people see $80,000 and flip out and will claw and scratch and burn and kill, so the visitors and clicks will BLOW OUT at this time for that dangling carrot. But it's clearly a rigged contest due to their inattentiveness to allow audience to find and support entries (without extra hassle).
I'm sure I could find a fifth and sixth reason to back up the theory and make it seem closer to empirical, but it is too early in the morning.
What am I missing?
Using Chrome (desktop browser) and I click the WEBTOONS CONTEST banner and get the long contest explanation graphic. I click anything with the contest and the same window appears. I see "recommended" in discovery (as usual) and those aren't entries (maybe some are).
Then I looked around discover to see if the icons of updates or specific comics might show something for the contest... nothing.
Hopefully they evolve their code and working of the contest, but why go into it half-cocked? They should be whooping it up, and yet they merely whoop up the ability to "enter" for the $80,000!!!
$80,000!!!
$80,000!!!
$80,000!!!
$80,000!!!
$80,000!!!
Seems carroty.
They actually made that page with all the entries from the contest but right now it's only on the phone app. If you try to browse in a computer you won't find it because they didn't change things there yet.
They are pushing it too on Facebook and Instagram ads. They are spending more money advertising the contest.
What you stated is just speculation. We never know what they are really up to. Contests like these are usually a publicity stunt and to attract talent. Though there are way too many talented creators on Discover and they don't get featured.
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Content wise, it's better to look at other content. Webtoons have controversial themes and it has been done tastefully. Look at Melvina's Therapy and Bastard for example.
@darthkrievos We are just noobs. XD We happen to have a big fanbase. Then again, this is not a popularity contest. Even underdogs can win and get featured.
Webtoons aim for diversity. Just take a look at their featured comics. It's quite an odd mix of western and eastern inspired comics. Hopefully, they are not too biased when it comes to judging. At the end of the day, we don't know what they are up to. Just create something you want and have fun doing so.
The whole contest boils down to the same thing everything they do does- making money. They were only investing in the past years and it's the same with this contest. Webtoon is trying to grow so that it will make huge amounts of money later on. Line Webtoon is so big in Korea, they want to establish the same thing in the US. They are far from there, so don't expect them to stop throwing money at creators without any financial gain on their side any time soon. They did start with ads recently, but it will take aeons until they get any earnings from this alone.
Of course this contest is meant for publicity and luring in creators, but also -and I like that point very much- to educate authors to properly format their comics to webtoon style. The vertically scrolling format is the evolution to get the best possible reading experience on mobile phones. There are several good reasons they want to push that.
Oh, and they also try to get people to stop spiltting their chapters into tiny, tiny updates by forcing the panel count. I also support that, while I do see that there are some poor folks on the receiving end like short comic strips. Okay, you can put multiple ones into a single update to get the necessary number of panels. At least you got that option.
@theyaoiarmy
While I agree that there are many webtoons worth publishing on Discover, they can only feature that many due to several factors. They'd need enough personel in the editing department, can't have too many too similar stories at the same time, need author's to be able to stick to schedules (there has been some problems and right out embarrassment in some cases), popularity doesn't equal consistency, reliability or even good work climate (you really don't want to put up with some Diva who think they are the greatest stuff in history); and the most important- not everyone who is popular/ gets asked to gets featured wants to be. There have been cases where the offer was turned down. Most of finalists in previous contests didn't get featured, although you get the chance if you place high enough. But even Discover creators refuse every now and then. Because they don't want to publish exclusively on webtoons, they don't have the time or don't want to publish weekly, they don't want to change the layout to fit webtoons preferred format etc.
@twinblades
You can publish the same comic on Tapas. Self publishing online is no problem. As long as webtoons doesn't have to battle it out with another company to get the rights to publish your story, you are good to go. Like, if your contest submission is a Premium Comic.
@Zushi
Webtoons is based in the United States. There are other departments taking care of asian territories. The one you are interested in is the one with the contest. Ignore the rest. Just make sure you do something that won't get you into trouble showing to minors in the US. While there is a parental guidance function, sensitive content is still visible to minors just a click of a button away.
I think theyaoiarmy summed it up wonderfully. Tastefully is the keyword here.
Hey guys, I know this is kind of going off topic a bit but if any of you guys are interested in sharing eachothers comics and like each others comics that would be awesome. As you all know its really difficult to gain an audience when your just a small creator and just starting out. So I think if we'd support eachother it would be a lot easier to possibly get noticed. Let me know what you guys think. My webtoon is called "The Misfit Club" I'm going to be honest the first episode is a bit slow, but I plan to improve its my first webtoon after all I'm just a little noob yet. And I have defiantly noticed people downvoting incredible comics in this contest. I understand its a competition but I wish they would just be honest and rate it what they think the webcomic deserves. They either rate is 1 star or rate it 10 its like theres no where in between. Another thing I'm finding be an issue is it just me or are some people entering in the Comedy genre when there comic isn't even comedy. I recognize you need less panels if your entering in comedy. But still its not fair to enter through the wrong genre. Maybe I'm just noticing this. What are your guys thoughts and what you have seen and thought on this?
There's a thread for that ^_^ You may have the best luck posting your entry over there
I also wouldn't worry about people who enter and don't meet the guidelines, they shouldn't win if they aren't following the rules or meeting the guidelines.
Thank you very much!! I did not know about that thread, I greatly appreciate you sharing it with me I'll defiantly will check it out. Also I'm sure your right, I don't think webtoon would let them get away with that. There very picky, on what webtoons they feature to begin with.
This is an easy resentful attitude to take, but keep in mind that we can't know for certain what the managing editors' intentions are or why they make the choices they do. Even if they don't promote certain comics to make things more "fair" it doesn't keep viewers from wanting to give attention to the comics that are already getting more attention thus giving them more more attention. This attitude will ruin anyone courageous enough to try to accomplish anything. Be bold, try, fail, and succeed. But don't blame others or discourage people because you feel like trolling.
how does that even begin to create an even playing field?