Thoughts on the new Webtoon Contest?

[Meraky]

Don't take the rating at heart. It doesn't actually mean anything. I even emailed webtoon about it for the contest and they don't check the rating AT ALL. Other people have 8-9 thanks to an already existent fanbase to create a wall against those 1/10 haters. To be honest, as contestant to contestant, I spotted your webtoon the day you posted and my first reaction was: This one is dangerous. It's actually good. SO DON'T GET DISCOURAGED BY THE RATING!

[Emevsa]

I subbed to yours a few days ago because I looked at it and went, "This will make it to the featured section for sure!" Your art is amazing and certainly has inspired me to keep at it! Don't be discourage by the ratings. It's a fluid thing but then it ends up stabilizing. You're work is amazing!

[scythe]

Your art is PERFECT for webtoons, well above the quality necessary to get featured. Really nice work. I'm 100% sure you'll end up in the high 9s by the time you upload a few more episodes. But like someone already mentioned, the rating isn't used for anything. I highly doubt it even factors in to the popularity ranking algorithm.

The only thing I can see that could possibly have caused people to downvote your webtoon is the size of the font. It's not that small for me, but I do know that the audience can be quite particular with that sort of thing.

[Stoner]

Considering audience engagement, people shouldn't get too stuck on the actual numbers. The 40% most likely aren't to be valued at exactly 40%, because you can't properly scale such diverse values and compare them to each other to get hard numbers. It basically just means it gets taken into account, but the judges decision has more weight to it. Popularity will help with a decision, but it won't be the mayor factor.

It's like owning 51% of a company. Everyone else can give their opinion, but in the end, the big fish got the last word. They mention a high number for audience engagement to make clear they understand that you have to listen to the audience to some degree. It's basic logic in entertainment that you need to cater to the audience, not the other way around.

We don't know their pointing system. Nobody said you will get points in popularity to get added to the points you get from the judges to do some simple math. It's highly unlikely to work this way.

I'm pretty inactive in this community but focus on your comic's quality instead of some arbitrary rating system (though that does hurt people yeah).

Believe in your work is what I'm saying.

This is a beautiful and inspiring mindset. I wish way more people would share it instead of getting discouraged. Of course, winning would be nice and numbers can be harsh, but we should focus on doing our best and improve instead of seeing this as a one way track.

[jarzebiny]

I think, after a few episodes, it should even out! When I uploaded mine, it was like 9 something, then it dipped down to 6, then 7, now it's 7.5 lol. I only have one episode up so far so I'm hoping it'll do better.

I also think yours is more likely to do well because of the art style/genre. Don't get discouraged

[CarolRiverArt]

In my case my comic always end in 8. I´m making changes to my first comic, The comic was on 9 but it went down to 8.40, until my recent update that again, went down to 8.00. I guess during contest this is always normal. I saw in other discussions before that uploading during contests always give the down voting results! ;C

[K2O]

Ah, I didn't expect to receive such kind words...thank you so much for taking the time to comment, I truly appreciate it. I also apologize if my comment derailed the topic at hand, I also didn't mean to do that.

It's not that I expect people to hand out perfect 10s to comics because I know people have different tastes (they may not like the genre, the art style, etc., I completely understand), I know for one that my comic is definitely far from perfect. I was just surprised to see how common it is for people to mass vote with 1s over there for the sake of hating/trolling since it's my first time posting anything on that site. I was being naive...I apologize. ;_; I'm glad to hear that ratings do not affect people's chances in the contest though! Does it affect those people who are part of the pledge (?) and the upcoming ad revenue program?

@scythe Thank you so much for your suggestion! I am such a newbie, I assumed 35px will be enough, ack. I'll make sure to fix stuff in the prologue before I post the next episode!

(Good luck to everyone in the contest by the way!)

[Demy]

I mean I'm not that inspiring. I just think that if you try hard enough you can find success even if its not what you thought it would be.

Like I remember my life drawing teacher saying that winning or losing an art contest doesn't guarantee success in your art career. So for me it means that even though I see myself as a terrible artist, I can at least use that as motivation to get better and work on what I'm weak at. That and its pretty good exposure.

Ok maybe I shouldn't say that I see myself as a terrible artist lol. Ok my point is just try hard, believe in your work, and get better and your work will speak for itself (though you'll have to advertise, practice and stuff but you know what I mean.)

[Inuneko_Nanita]

Hello guys new here. Also made an account to reply about the down voting thing.

I actually thought I was so special that I got the special treatment where all the comments on my entry get a down vote, then my steady 10 rating (coz mine is not famous I guess that's why mine stayed 10 for a while) suddenly reduced to 9.44, then to 8.something, then now 7.something. It might continue to go down to 6, 5, 4 and so on.

It really made me want to quit, so I feel you guys.

And AMAZING ART @K2O !!!!!!!

[Emevsa]

Has anyone else noticed that Webtoons is now promoting only entries uploaded after June 11?

[fleohr]

It's been like this since the contest started, even though that time they only promoted a few of them

[Emevsa]

I noted that it was a few in the beginning but now it's almost exclusively contest titles with exception for the binge worthing category.

[Lesser]

That $80,000 grandprize is making a lot of people delusional.

That was the point of this contest. It appears they don't really care about promoting the entries or getting people to focus or dwell on entries; in other words--they pretty much knew the winners they would choose before this thing started.

Why?

The money is meant to make people delirious and to drag into Webtoons a huge audience of hopefuls and their fans as endless comics are posted. Webtoons becomes THE comic warehouse on the web, it gets huge traffic, and then transitions to its ad revenue model in August (before the end of the contest!) where it reaps rewards from the traffic and gets people to stay and contribute via the ad revenue.

Smart stuff.

Just don't think the prize in in your grasp, because it was never meant to be. The golden ring on the carousel is there to get people to ride an old and boring mechanism that goes in circles for fun.

[jelly]

I'm disappointed,there's no competition in this contest. apparently, Line already chose the winner.

[AllisonGal]

yeah, this is probably to hide the fact that they already put 2 entries for half of the duration of the contest. They think people will let go of the fact that they favorited a certain comic to the very top by now putting on many of the contest entries into those random sections. That way if that comic wins, no one can complain cause they also put up many (which of course contain none of the comics with higher fair popularity because they wouldn't want those to be able to beat their special sweet chosen comic). Seeing things happen like that, I'm pretty sure many authors will not want to participate in future contests.

[kalrhungus]

so which comic are you talking about. sorry -didn't pay too much attention to the contest but now i'm curious.

[denaliah]

Yeah I'm also curious which comics you're talking about and in which category? I'm also debating on which category to submit to. Mine's about the spirit of a teen boy who wants to be an angel, who meets a cynical high school girl, it takes place in current time but also has fictional fantastical locations. I have a lot of personal development and struggles and interactions that could technically go under drama, BUT i feel because my story isn't romance typical drama readers won't subscribe or like it? Fantasy or supernatural is obvious, but i don't know which one. Mine could technically go under gripping, epic or feels, wondering which category is the most strategic. Gripping has less competition, but stories under that category aren't as well noticed as fantasy or drama. And you can't change the main category fml

Comic's not up yet but here's the some samples of my art style: http://instagram.com/peiweicomic

Ahh can't decide! I have a feeling since chances for winning are slim, I should just use this contest as a chance to gain followers and the longer I wait, the more obscure I'll risk becoming Most of the popular entries seem to have submitted before early July.

[jelly]

Most people would know which one it is, it's the one with the most subs and the top popular in the contest section. (I'm not gonna say the comic name bcoz some people might get offended or accuse me of hating when I'm not).

[fattackycats]

I just found this forum and I'm so glad I did! Plenty of insightful and interesting conversation going on about the contest. I have also entered, and boy, has it been slow. As a small creator with a tiny following on social media, it makes it even harder to find an audience on Webtoon. Idk if it's the new algorithm or people just not seeing my work or not caring or all three. But I'm having a hard time getting my work SEEN by anyone.

I've posted two comics on webtoon: the first was a fantasy series that had a pretty steady growth until webtoon put it on recommended forever ago and my sub count shot up. By the time I decided to quit that comic to pursue other things, I had over nearly 1,400 subs, but the engagement was pretty low. When I announced that I was making a new series for the contest and tried to get my 1,300+ viewers from my first comic to follow me over, I think only maybe 5 did. So, I'm not sure what's up with that.

When I updated in the past and even now, I barely gain a couple subs, and hardly any of those subs will actually engage. Also, it's kinda sad but funny, the last two times I've updated I've actually lost subs! It's so confusing and can be really discouraging for small creators like me. Then when you see blatant advertising of other contest entries (especially those with already large followings that don't need the extra bump) it really is a punch in the gut.

Like a lot of folks on here has already said, this contest is great for practice, but when it comes to exposure, I feel like it really only helps if you had a pretty decent-sized following to begin with, and you just carried it over to webtoon. Because as far as exposure is concerned, I don't think it's helping me. Also, making money from the Discover patreon program thing is not attainable either when you have a tiny following and can't seem to grow it at a consistent rate. I would have to be publishing for years and years, and by then they'd have changed the requirements or cut it altogether. My point here is visibility is HUGE. I feel that making engagement 40% of the requirements is already putting peeps like me miles back. I just hope webtoon has a way of reviewing every entry regardless of how popular so that everyone gets their comic in front of the eyes of a judge so that they have a modicum of a chance.

BUT, I'm not letting this all get me down! Not trying to be a negative nancy!
I love that this discussion is happening and I can't wait to read a ton of these contest entries :3

Also, shameless promotion, here's mine:

Paracosm

[GesuGesu]

I'm not in the contest, but I do think that the main audience who go to Webtoons to read tend to prefer Asian-style artwork like the pretty easy-to-tell Korean style or Japanese style. I'm not attacking western vs anime artstyles but I really do think that audiences on certain sites have a preference, and the artstyle they see on the thumbnail is the first thing to attract the fishes.