▲ Web Novel Adapted Drama ‘The Call You Are Making Now’
Many people are taking on the challenge of writing web novels. Thousands of participants compete in contests that sometimes offer tens of millions of won in prize money. Those tired of corporate life dream of striking it rich by becoming full-time web novel authors. However, achieving this dream is not as easy as it seems.
According to a report titled ‘2024 Web Novel Industry Status Survey,’ published today (16th) by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Publishing Culture Industry Promotion Agency, less than 5% of web novels earn an average royalty of over 30 million won per piece. Only 1% earn over 100 million won, 2.6% earn between 50 million and 100 million won, and 1.3% earn between 30 million and 50 million won.
Seven out of ten (70.8%) web novel authors earn less than 5 million won per piece, with 12.0% earning less than 100,000 won. Despite the fact that many do not earn significant income from web novels, authors remain highly dependent on them for their income. Revenue from serializing web novels accounts for 60.3% of their total income.
The reason web novel creators continue to take on the challenge is the growth of the web novel market. Based on the main platforms’ sales, the estimated size of the web novel market in 2024 is 1.35 trillion won, which is an increase of 311 billion won from 1.039 trillion won in 2022.
Among web novel users, 79.0% stated that they engaged in paid transactions for web novels, with an average payment of 8,032 won per transaction. The Korea Publishing Culture Industry Promotion Agency analyzed, “The web novel industry forms an important segment in the digital content market, focusing on platform sales and the use of secondary copyrights. Particularly, web novels have great potential as source IPs (intellectual property) that can expand into various second-stage content such as webtoons, movies, and games.”
This survey was conducted online and involved 152 web novel suppliers (CP companies), 10 platforms, 800 creators, and 811 users.
(Photo courtesy of King Kong by Starship, Korea Publishing Culture Industry Promotion Agency, Yonhap News)