Honeyfeed contest

[Kitsura]

Looks like honeyfeed is doing a MAL contest again, does anyone know if the original winners of the past contest got their manga?

 

[LostLibrarian]

AFAIK they created their own publishing agency that was meant to represent the winners and get one door into the foot to japan.
At least there was no big announcement about any manga created or any real connection...
That said, there was no promise to get a manga anyway so I would guess that the overall quality just wasn't there...

 

[BenJepheneT]

AFAIK they created their own publishing agency that was meant to represent the winners and get one door into the foot to japan.
At least there was no big announcement about any manga created or any real connection...
That said, there was no promise to get a manga anyway so I would guess that the overall quality just wasn't there...

If you catch up with the goings of the competition you'll find out it's mostly a popularity contest with no judging panel to dictate the quality of the work. Honeyfeed probably reached out for a crapshoot as a way to boost their site engagement. I might be wrong, and that Kodansha might give them a one-shot manga from an amateur mangaka to prove his worth, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a wishful circlejerk.

 

[LostLibrarian]

Yeah, it is a popularity contest. Though this year, there seems to be a judging panel as well. Interesting to see how that might turn out...
They run the contest in the hope to get some piece of the MAL community to stay as readers as their user is still rather small and stories outside of the contest rarely get a lot of views. It's the same as all the webnovel-clones, though here you can at least be sure that you get the price money should you have enough friends to vote for you :D

I might be wrong, and that Kodansha might give them a one-shot manga from an amateur mangaka to prove his worth, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a wishful circlejerk.

AFAIK there is actual contact to Kodansha, but they don't give away a manga directly to the winner but have a look at the interesting finalists and might give those an offer. Which - with most entries - will simply fall through due to the quality and/or structure of the entry...

 

[Reec]

Everything about that contest is about as below board as it gets. It's a glorified popularity contest and as unethical as it gets. They literally let their staff members, supervisors and anyone else compete in the contest and also JUDGE it.

Also behind the scenes, many of the winners are under an airtight NDA they have to sign to get the prize money because Honeyfeed takes a huge chunk of your novels rights via a contract they require you sign once you win, they don't want anyone to know that tho. They originally had this rule in the general contest rules two years ago "you forfeit all rights to your novel by entering" then they got a shit ton of backlash so they took that out of the public rules but make all their winners sign an NDA with their "Literary Agency". That way they can still snatch the rights on the back end via their "exclusive contract" and no one can legally speak publicly.

So mixing the fact that Kodansha hasn't signed any of the winners, Honeyfeed hasn't invested anything into promoting the winners online to new readers (not even a piece of artwork), and the fact that they take rights from you to get the prize money while having nearly zero verified credibility in the Japanese publishing industry (other than popping up and claiming to be a Literary Agency), I'd say that anyone with actual talent and IP they want to protect should run as far from that place as possible.

That entire operation screams TokyoPop and it's predatory OELM scheme way back when.

J-Novel Club is running a contest this year for light novels which appears to be a lot more above board and they are very clear about rights. Everything with Honeyfeed is shady NDA and "you need to win to find out". Very shady for a new Literary Agent with zero results or track record to bar all its clients from speaking. No reputable Agent would ever ask for one.

 

[SailusGebel]

Everything about that contest is about as below board as it gets. It's a glorified popularity contest and as unethical as it gets. They literally let their staff members, supervisors and anyone else compete in the contest and also JUDGE it.

Also behind the scenes, many of the winners are under an airtight NDA they have to sign to get the prize money because Honeyfeed takes a huge chunk of your novels rights via a contract they require you sign once you win, they don't want anyone to know that tho. They originally had this rule in the general contest rules two years ago "you forfeit all rights to your novel by entering" then they got a shit ton of backlash so they took that out of the public rules but make all their winners sign an NDA with their "Literary Agency". That way they can still snatch the rights on the back end via their "exclusive contract" and no one can legally speak publicly.

So mixing the fact that Kodansha hasn't signed any of the winners, Honeyfeed hasn't invested anything into promoting the winners online to new readers (not even a piece of artwork), and the fact that they take rights from you to get the prize money while having nearly zero verified credibility in the Japanese publishing industry (other than popping up and claiming to be a Literary Agency), I'd say that anyone with actual talent and IP they want to protect should run as far from that place as possible.

That entire operation screams TokyoPop and it's predatory OELM scheme way back when.

J-Novel Club is running a contest this year for light novels which appears to be a lot more above board and they are very clear about rights. Everything with Honeyfeed is shady NDA and "you need to win to find out". Very shady for a new Literary Agent with zero results or track record to bar all its clients from speaking. No reputable Agent would ever ask for one.

Bruh.

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

Bruh.

 

[SailusGebel]

We should make a "days without necroing" meme.

 

[melchi]

The submission for the contest deadline is march 31st...

 

[HungrySheep]

I have spoken with a few of the winners. To my knowledge, none of the previous winners have received their manga as of yet.