World Wide Web Novels is on the hunt for the next big web novels through a competition running through Aug. 31.
Organized by local IT firm Thingsflow, WWW 2023 aims to discover new talents that can lead the Korean creative content industry and promote the web novel-genre that has been growing rapidly in recent years.
Many of the web novels, or novels published online, have been adapted as TV dramas and films. JTBC's "Reborn Rich" (2022), starring heartthrob Song Joong-ki, was originally written as a web novel.
The web novel contest seeks to find creative projects in five genres -- romance, romance fantasy, fantasy and modern fantasy, historical fiction, and mystery suspense.
Submissions must be a 15-part or longer story with more than 4,000 words for each episode.
In the romance and mystery suspense category, the contestants are expected to plan out more than 100 episodes.
Romance fantasy stories need to have more than 150 episodes, and a minimum of 200 episodes from the fantasy and modern fantasy category, and historical fiction applicants.
The submitted works will be evaluated in four different categories -- creativity, popularity, level of completeness and extensibility.
A total of 31 web novels will be selected and among them, a grand prize winner will be awarded 30 million won ($23,000).
Five novels -- one from each genre -- will be given the best excellence award and 15 -- three from each genre -- excellence awards, for which each creator will receive 6 million won and 2 million won, respectively.
Another five, regardless of their genres, will be selected for the popularity prize and be awarded 1 million won each.
Five English submissions will be named as the winners of global awards with prize money of 1 million won as well.
Those under 15 or those signed by an agency are not allowed to take part in the competition.
Creators can submit their applications to studio.storyplay.com.
The web novel competition will run through 23:59 p.m. on Aug. 31. Winners will be announced either in October or November.
