[CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest
-
I guess the title of the thread should be changed to "Submissions now Closed!" hahah.
-
@LeeroyCGNA just a little under 500, which is right at the top range of my prediction for number of entries.
And we are gonna do our best to get through them (have about 10 people helping with the first round judging)
-
FYI, you might want to check your email for a confirmation of entry (separate from one that you may have requested). I received mine at 5:40PM EST on 2/1/24.
Highlights: they don’t want you to post your work anywhere else until you are eliminated (unless it was already previously posted somewhere else).
Your work will be evaluated by 2 readers.
464 entries
They estimate that:
60-100 will pass first round.
10-20 will pass the second round.
good luck everyone! -
The email also mentions that JNC will very likely hold another contest next year, and encouraged us to go ahead and start writing for it if we want.
-
@jazzyjeoff, and how good it felt to get that mail! For next year, they really should autosend a mail when you submit your novel.
@Alfaerin, I was glad to see that because it means I don't have to think of something else to fill the gaping hole in my life that stopping writing would create :) Although it does beg the question of whether a volume 2 of something that didn't make the cut this year would be judged negatively because it wasn't strictly a standalone story. The obvious reason for wanting to know is that right now I'd prefer to carry on with a volume 2 from where my contest submission left off.
Still, if I've got a year then I'd have plenty enough time to write volume 2 and also complete my what now seems to have turned into a comedy horror isekai story, which has the provisional title "Help! A Crafty Goddess Reincarnated Me 200 Million Years After My Date with Truck-kun and Now The Whole World's Gone to S***".
-
Me: reviewing draft of L&F after the fact
Also me: notices an entire paragraph missing resulting in a very hard cut
Me: Oh goddamn it. I guess this is what I get for basically rushing in such a rough first draft. -
@zwabbit You got it in—that’s the big thing.
-
@zwabbit Don't let it get to you--they're not expecting us to send in perfect manuscripts ready to print. It's already been said in this topic that any winners will almost certainly undergo editing and revision, and they're open to authors adding new material.
-
@Angelus I argue that even if your work does not make the cut, you could still improve it and be selected next time. So following up the story and later comeback to review the first volume is probably a good idea.
-
@Alfaerin said in [SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
@zwabbit Don't let it get to you--they're not expecting us to send in perfect manuscripts ready to print. It's already been said in this topic that any winners will almost certainly undergo editing and revision, and they're open to authors adding new material.
As far as I know the only person to have a book published without editing is Tolkien (excluding self-publishers of course), so I'd be shocked if any winners didn't have any edits or revisions.
-
@QuixoticHorizon IIRC, Laura Ingalls Wilder's final book, The First Four Years, was published without any editing. Her daughter found the manuscript after her death, so it was published as-is and reads much differently compared to the rest of the Little House on the Prairie series.
-
@Alfaerin Ahh, come to think of it I think the same is true of Michael Crichton last work, Pirate Latitudes.
I amend my previous statement to mean in terms of authors alive at the time of publication =P
-
There's quite a few posts to sift through, but was there ever a mention of judging criteria?
Is it like what I've seen in Bakuman where a novel only needs to be interesting in order to be serialized? Or are there certain qualities that @admin are looking for?
I'd imagine viability of sale and popularity would be a huge factor, but that would only be measurable in the second stage of judging when the LN's are posted to the website right?
I guess I'm just asking for clarification on what judges are looking for.
PS. Apologies if this has been covered before in this monstrous thread.
-
@LeeroyCGNA we are not going to discuss our internal judging criteria.
-
@admin Okay that's fair enough. It was mostly an informal question/speculation.
Thanks.
-
@LeeroyCGNA The most we know about this subject is what the guest judges say they look for in an outstanding light novel:
-
I mean I can explain further but this isn't an answer anyone wants to hear:
This is our first time doing this kind of contest. We had no idea what kind of entries we would get. We don't currently published original english language light novels and don't know what will sell or won't sell exactly.
We haven't worked directly with authors before, so don't have necessarily a good concept of the workflow for publishing novels like this regularly.A.k.a we have no idea what we are doing, and therefore, we do not have any preconcieved set of juding criteria for the winners.
I will say I have produced a rubrik for the judging that is happening right now for the first round, which has been sent to all the judges, and will also be used as the format for the evaluation/feedback forms that those who pass the first round will get.
Once we get to the second round, I'll produce a new set of criteria for that, and then for deciding the actual winners I think it's going to be a lively internal debate.I wish I could give everyone some kind of hyper specific list of things we are looking for or even the things we don't care about but in reality we are just figuring this all out as we go.
-
@admin said in [SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
We haven't worked directly with authors before, so don't have necessarily a good concept of the workflow for publishing novels like this regularly.
A.k.a we have no idea what we are doing, and therefore, we do not have any preconceived set of judging criteria for the winners.That's fine, it just means that we are the prototypes. I'm even more excited now.
Hopefully this is a great success moving forward for J-Novel and there will be plenty more of these competitions in the future.
-
@LeeroyCGNA said in [SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
@admin said in [SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
We haven't worked directly with authors before, so don't have necessarily a good concept of the workflow for publishing novels like this regularly.
A.k.a we have no idea what we are doing, and therefore, we do not have any preconceived set of judging criteria for the winners.That's fine, it just means that we are the prototypes. I'm even more excited now.
Hopefully this is a great success moving forward for J-Novel and there will be plenty more of these competitions in the future.
I’ve actually found the flexibility to be great. From what I’ve seen there is a huge variety of stories. To be honest, i have nothing but sympathy for the judges and for J Novel Club for taking the risk on original English works.
For someone like me, who hadn’t written in ages, it was a welcome return to the writing bug that the mortgage had drained away.
I, for one, am a happy little lab specimen and look forward to seeing what the experiment produces.
-
@Damon-Cavalchini said in [SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
For someone like me, who hadn’t written in ages, it was a welcome return to the writing bug that the mortgage had drained away.
I, for one, am a happy little lab specimen and look forward to seeing what the experiment produces.Agreed.
I've always loved the Japanese storytelling mediums, Anime/Manga in particular. To have a chance of my work being adapted into manga is honestly something that I'd never thought possible.
Good luck everyone, but most of all good luck to the judges who have to scour through 460+ Light Novels.
