My wife just finished with her newest K-drama, Marry My Husband. The plot is that all men are garbage unless they are handsome and rich, however, the important part is that this very popular TV show started life on WEBToons. It’s far from the only one out there. There are now better than 20 of those shows out in the wild and that number isn’t going to go down any time soon. Hollywood is starting to jump on the bandwagon, contracts have been signed and projects put into development.
WEBToons are the new comic books so far as Tinsel Town is concerned.
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The advantage of WEBToons.com is that they are the biggest webtoons site out there. That is also the problem with WEBToons, Think about how hard it is for a creator to get any kind of traction on YouTube and you’ll get the idea.
It is possible to hit it big on that site. Let’s start with the most famous winner out there, Lore Olympus.
The best guess as to creator Rachel Smythe’s annual revenue was $12 million in 2022. This is only a guess since neither Rachel nor Webtoons will say what she actually makes, but nobody is contesting that it’s in the ten-figure range. And let’s face it, you don’t get Sydney Sweeney in full-body makeup for chump change.
Everybody knows that the best-case scenario won’t apply to them, or at least that is what they admit out loud, if not in their deepest heart.
But let’s look at the lower end of the scale.
“Canvas creators (‘canvas creators’ post for free) can get paid via WEBTOON’s Ad Revenue System — but this isn’t available to everyone. Before Canvas creators can get paid, they need 40,000 page views and 1000 subscribers. Once they’ve hit that threshold, they can turn on ads. The ad payout money will accrue, and Canvas creators will be able to withdraw funds once they have made at least $100 — and not before. The Ad Revenue System isn’t super consistent, as ad payouts can vary from month to month.”
“Canvas creator Morishita goes over her earnings on WEBTOON Canvas. She has 500,000 page views, 23,000 subscribers, and has published 19 episodes over one year (2020 to 2021). In her video, she says that she has made $80 from the Ad Revenue Program. Also, because creators can only collect funds once they hit $100, Morishita hasn’t actually collected any of her earnings.”
Okay, she’s the new kid on the block so you don’t expect to make a lot at first. But here’s the important part.
“The only way to earn a steady income from WEBTOON is to become an Originals creator.”
“Each Originals creator has a contract (with Webtoons), and they earn a set amount per episode (meaning their income relies on their production of content, and if they take a break that income disappears). However, you can’t just automatically become an Originals creator once you’ve hit a certain milestone. WEBTOON staff editors personally recruit creators, so if you want to become an Originals creator, you have to be noticeable — which means getting a lot of fans!”
The problem is that webtoons.com has decided it wants its cut of everything and it wants that cut in stone. WEBToons is now allegedly forcing their Originals creators to sign predatory contracts.
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I was offered the Originals deal a few months back but looked over it and thought it was extremely predatory (I have experience in traditional comics so I’m well versed in rights and such.) I couldn’t believe what I was reading in my contract so I contacted a few Originals creators to see if the stuff in my contract was also in theirs. I was shocked and appalled at what I discovered.
Basically, the webtoon originals contract has evolved every year or so to become more and more predatory. These were the things in the contract offered to me (what I assume is the current and newest contract.) If I signed this contract, all of these clauses would apply to my comic in exchange for being an originals series:
Webtoon would automatically have the ability to buy 100% of my IP. Previous webtoon originals creators didn’t have this in their contract at all so I believe its a new thing. Apparently this is so if any series happens to do very very well, webtoon can just snatch the entire IP out from under the creator (for a very low fee.) and unfortunately this has already happened to some creators.
Webtoon would own my print publishing rights. this was something that immediately stood out to me. I had previously read some threads on twitter by original creators that talked about printing rights, and with my own experience in trad pub I was shocked and angry to see this. digital publishers should NOT have print publishing rights, only digital publishing rights. If you didn’t know, print publishing rights can be bought by publishers in a deal that can be anywhere from 5-6 figures of $. This means that if I signed the webtoon originals deal, I would be giving away my print publishing rights to webtoon for almost FREE. there is a clause that specified they would pay me $2k for automatic ownership of my printing rights, which is again a huge ripoff when compared to 5-6 figures.
Webtoon would own all my merchandizing rights. I wouldn’t be allowed to make merch of my own comics. not much to elaborate on here other than that this clause sucks.
Webtoon would become my agent, for print publishing and multimedia deals. this is HIGHLY unethical. an agent is supposed to be a third party with your best interests in mind. if webtoon is my digital publisher and also my agent, it could just sell my rights to another one of its branches. like to the webtoon wattpad portion of the company that prints books, cutting me a crappy deal to keep costs down and pay me as little as possible.
Not only were these clauses highly unethical, but the pay offered to me was also severely lacking. In conclusion, I’m still shocked and angry about the contract and am saddened every time a new original’s deal is announced because I know the creator has basically given up all of their rights just for an opportunity to be an originals. Though I also heard you can argue some of the clauses out if you have a lawyer on hand and can afford one, but not many creators do. I was told that it wasn’t always this way, and that it only started in the last year or so after they hired some guy from hollywood or something to deal with all of the IP stuff at webtoon. I hope that if enough creators push back on these predatory contracts, webtoon will reconsider these clauses.
Finally, good luck, and get some lawyers if you want to become an originals series.
The original post on Reddit has been deleted however, other Originals creators have come forward to corroborate that this allegedly predatory contract is indeed what WEBToons expects you to sign if you want to feel the love.
But if you’re a creator remember, it’s not 2020 anymore and there are better options out there for the talented. It’s going to be hard work no matter what road you choose, but you don’t have to sign a Siegal and Schuster contract.
Disclaimer: Dark Herald affiliated with Arktoons, which is a competitor of WEBToons.com.
What do you think of WEBToon and their comic industry contracts? Leave a comment and let us know.
I think if I want to run my books as toons, I am going to use Arkhaven instead.