Novelpia Goes Global with a New English Webnovel Platform
A new webnovel platform for English readers has appeared!
I saw something this week that took me by surprise. Something I haven’t seen talked about in the news in Korea or the US.
Novelpia Global.
If the name “Novelpia” doesn’t sound any bells, I wouldn’t be surprised. Novelpia is a Korean webnovel platform operated by the Korean company Metacraft out of Seoul, South Korea. Metacraft has two sister companies that also produce content for the international market: TOPCO and TOPCO Japan. And together, they operate the entire suite of Toptoon and Daycomics platforms for Korea, Taiwan, and the US.
Yep. Toptoon just launched a new English webnovel platform targeting the US market.
The Trinity of Webnovel Publishing
Before we get too far, I should mention that I was employed as a Webtoon Producer at TOPCO for a little over a year. As such, any knowledge of webnovel publishing gleaned through confidential means during my time at TOPCO will not be included in this post.
Before we get started, there are three essential truths about the webnovel industry that I’d like to share.
The popularity of webnovels is at an all-time high. This is true in Korea and Japan where webnovels have had a long and storied history, but also in western markets like the US where Royal Road, Wattpad, Wuxia World, and Webnovel are seeing record-numbers of new titles and readerships (not necessarily both at the same time).
Webnovel publishing is cheaper than other webmedia serials (i.e. webtoons, short videos, etc.). There are multiple webserial-turned-mainstream writers who’ve found massive success in the past decade and with the advent of TikTok and Youtube Shorts, that number is only continuing ot increase.
Webnovel translation is prohibitively expensive. The Japanese light novel industry has been around for decades (my first introduction was literally 20 years ago) and while the popularity of Korean and Chinese webnovels have exploded, the costs related to translating a 500 episode story are in the tens of thousands per story.
The “white whale” of Korean publishing has been creating an affordable pipeline for webnovel publication in foreign markets. The general model now is using MTPE, machine translation post-editing which has the bulk translation handled by AI and reviewed by a human editor (which is also fed back to the AI).
High Risk, High… Something
The biggest risk when publishing webnovels is the vast amount of content that exists. When the average series is over 200 episodes long, the monthly cost commitment across a catalogue can reach the hundred thousand range quickly. But with so few webnovel publishers in the overseas market, there’s a glut of content to be contracted in the Korean market.
It almost seems like the perfect storm.
Korean webnovel publishers are eager to have their titles translated and published for overseas markets at a time when webnovels are at their most popular. And while AI translations may not be the best option, they do drive costs down.
What could possibly go wrong?
In a word, piracy. Webnovel piracy is at an all-time high with new pirate sites appearing monthly. Even English authors who publish on Royal Road (a free site) routinely find their webnovels on other pirate sites. While the webtoon, comic, manga industry has made major strides forward in combating piracy, webnovel piracy is relatively untouched.
Wait, So…
If the language of this post comes off cynical, it may be because the writer is just that.
There are reams of webnovel publishers who would happily contract with platforms to distribute their titles to overseas audiences. But the costs of translation and risks due to piracy have been the biggest hurdle to new players in the field.
And to see Novelpia launch at a time when webnovel piracy is beyond uncontrolled is… confusing.
Unlike the webtoon industry, there aren’t many large players in the international webnovel market who have the resources to band together to fight piracy. And even in Korea, webnovel platforms generally operate by subscription in order to entice readers. And due to the relatively low costs associated with operating a text heavy platform, webnovel publishers are able to pull a small profit.
But then again, maybe they know something the rest of the market doesn’t.
I mean… probably not. But maybe.