Kadokawa Opens Second English Light Novel Contest For Overseas Writers
Kadokawa is courting overseas writers through an editing label that can push a winning book toward manga and anime, so the pipeline now starts outside Japan rather than only importing finished works.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime Herald.
Kadokawa is running a second contest for English-speaking writers who want to enter the Japanese light novel market, announced at an Anime Expo panel. The UGC global publishing project started last year, with frettiko as grand prize winner and Kazesenken scouted as a web novel author. Books from the first contest have a target release of 2027. MF Books head Satoshi Arima supervises the label and its twelve editors.
The contest sits outside the MF Books label, which Arima runs and which publishes mainly for readers in Japan. Anna Haas described the project as a way to work directly with overseas authors because Kadokawa does not publish English books itself. The two named participants from the first round, frettiko and Kazesenken, are set to speak at the panel about working with Kadokawa's editing teams and having their work published in Japan. Winners are not promised an adaptation; Haas said the company has the connections to turn a book into a manga, and possibly an anime, if it sells well.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.