JNC Original Light Novel Contest IS BACK

If you are a writer in this niche. It's time to stop procrastinating and write. If you have no motivation, here the motivation.

Money, recognition, and deadline you can chase in this contest.

JNC, or J-Novel Club, is a publishing company focused on translating Japanese light novels into English. Their contribution to the scene is pretty big. I could even argue that their contribution is bigger than that of larger players like Seven Seas, Yen Press, or Viz Media.

After all, JNC employs the community. Sometimes, they directly hire people who used to do fan translations of the series they are publishing. This gives them an advantage in both quality and speed.

After all, the people working on their titles are people who also love the series and want to read them too.

Their translation of Tearmoon Empire is absolute gold. I can clearly feel that the translator poured a lot of passion, knowledge, and time into doing extensive research while working on it.

Not to mention, their selection is pretty good too. Instead of just aiming for well-known titles, they target niche series that they think will resonate with their audience. And the best part is that their taste is just like ours as regular readers. You can really feel that they are fans of the medium rather than people who are just in it for the money.

Back to the topic.

After not holding it in 2025, JNC's contest is finally back this year, which is a huge relief.

If you read anime news, you must have heard about how Kadokawa's profits dropped quite a lot because of market saturation. I honestly thought we wouldn't have a contest this year either, considering the economic situation.

Submissions have not opened yet. Heck, their contest page isn't even up yet. But knowing early is good thing. You can use this time to prepare your concept, plan, and plot. After all, if you finish early, you can submit another story.

I'm not sure about this year's requirements, but they usually want either a one-shot or a planned series. You can submit one in each category. And make sure your story to be at least 60k words or more.

 I will write another post when the submission offically open.