So I would like to start out by thanking Translators, QI, the Authors and the community as a whole for providing a new reading experience as a whole. However, the interested in LN for me is fading rapidly and to me this is both a concern and in a way a liberation. Allow me to explain.

First, My interest is not fading because of lack of quality, lack of interesting stories or lack of a location to find these stories.
Second, My interest is also not fading due to the fact that I would need to pay for content, I do this on amazon, with games on PS4 or PC all the time. Or for that matter for TV shows on Netflix or HBO. So the willingness to spend money is also not a problem.

So what is the problem ? Well, it can be summed up in a very simple way. There is no way to actualy enjoy or keep enjoying the novels that you find interesting in without paying with your blood and flesh. Take for example King of Gods, I quite enjoy the story overall quite pleasant. From chapter 855 It is premium. Still quite alot of chapters for free, truely enough for me to appricate the story and know I enjoy it. Problem is, at 11 stones pr chapter. And the novel ending at 1586. That is a total of 731 Chapters of premium(not translated yet but you get the idea.) That makes a cost of 8041 stones if the average price stays at 11. That equals again to 2 purchases of the 49.99 Package for 3250 Stones total each (6500 now) Pluss 1 Purchase of the 19.99 One that gives 1250 stones. (7750 total so far.) that is still around 300 short which is 2 times the 2.99 one. To get enough stones if i want to buy. To read this novel to completion. Total cost econicaly is just about 126USD. An INSANE price value. For that amount, I can add quite alot of top quality western based novels, books or anything I would like. Its more valuable then several games put together. Im sorry QI, Authors, Translators. YOUR WORK IS NOT WORTH NEARLY THAT MUCH.

This is my first big problem, your so overpriced its stupid. I mean, I would be an idiot to let myself pick up new novels and get hooked, I would be stupid to LIKE any of these new novels because the moment they go premium, they will flay me dry with their overpriced value. But that leads to the second problem, I would not be paying for quality work. With so much word padding, repititions, plot copying from each other and more. The works overall are rarely that great. At times the endings are also so rushed or horrible that it makes the whole thing deflate. And this is just 1 novel, there are many who are interesting, many who I would like to read.

But I refuse to let myself be as I want to call it here, Scamed. Yes Scamed. I feel ripped off by the prices here. I dont feel like a valued customer, I feel like I am a fat pig to be sucked dry. For this reason I have stoped completly looking into new novels to read. I have stoped looking at works with high release rates, I have stoped caring. And to me, this is bothersome because its not that I dont like this, its because I feel cheated. Am I supposed to feel like this using this site QI ? I am very curious about that how this price point can be defended because even international best sellers, using quality editors and translators dont seem to be getting that much back considering the prices they sell things for and their quality is alot better. So what am I truely paying for ?

The only two Novels I now read are Grandfather of Champions (Since I can still watch adds.) and Its not easy being a man after traveling into the future. This because it has 1 chapter release a day and I can use free stones on that one. If one goes premium or the release rate goes up I will drop both. And there goes the last Novels I am reading and I am feeling numb to it. I get so much more value elsewhere, I can get myself 3-4 new games for the price of 1 novel, entertainment value is not even close in comparison, I can get myself several movies or subscribe to games or services for a whole year for that price point. And they deliver alot more content to me then 1 novel.

So can anyone tell me if concerns like this even matter ? I used to follow 10+ novels at a time, bought whole of Coiling Dragon and more. But now I feel that I should just consider walking away, because there is nothing but cheats left here, community is not being heard and I refuse to be treated like a piggybank. I would love it, if QI could accept and just treat of us as Fans and Customers they wish to deliver quality products to. But its just now the way it is. Does this bother Qi, Translators or Authors at all ? That your killing the hype that was built up over so long bit by bit ?

I feel like I have been ranting a bit now, and while I have asked questions here is one more before I offer atleast some suggestions, Am I the only one feeling like this ? If not please post bellow.

Now my suggestions.

First: Adjust the value of SS to a propper realistic value. 0.01 USD pr page, is what is considered reasonable for a ebook on amazon. For that, we get 1: No constant constant repitision of content. 2: A full ebook at a time. 3: Usualy edited work and 4: A place we can dump negative reviews for crappy work to discurage others from investing in it, encuraging writers, authors and editors to do a good job to ensure the willingness to keep getting the next instalment. Also, the work on this site is nowhere near the average value I am speaking about above. So 0.01 USD pr page, would still be high here. The value of SS should probably drop by close to 75% at present time to hit realistic value. Yeh, that much.

Second: Impliment some kind of monthly subscription service that grants more access for a set price. There are loads of ways this can be implimented. Subscriber stones (directly unlocks chapters) either daily, weekly or monthly. Full access, some kind of its own Kindle Unlimited program where if one is a subscriber one can get free access to a set number of novels that gets added to the system more and more over time. It can be done in alot of ways. The price of subscription would depend on the amount of content offered. 300 Chapters a month, I would price at roughly 10 USD a month. To give a starting point.

Third: Set a cap of total allowed of Premium Chapters of a novel. Should be no more then 25% of the novels total lenght. adds can start from after 25% til 75% the last 25% is premium at closer to todays prices. But no more then 350 Chapters can be premium regardless. And if a user pays for a premium chapter at ANY POINT in a novel, that means this user can only have max now 349 REMEMBER what we spend, paying for "early access" is bullshit when there is no longer any free chapters released on premium novels.

Four: Get a hell of a lot better at communicating with your customer base. Sorry its horrible. Just shows the lack of professionality, ethics and ability to manage anything. Not hard to fix, just face the storm and walk out afterwords, it will do you alot of good and show you some humlility you need.

Rant end, cant help but wonder how many will read it all. Thank you all anyway.

    Zhevons I kinda agree with your points and suggestions but I think it's unlikely to happen because we really are just pig to succ dry by corporations in this dying industry.

        I won't say anything abou the point concerning quality cause that's quite true.
        "But", if you calculate all those chapters (lets say 730) into their total word length (lets say 1,5k per chap = 1 milllion words) , compare those with regular books (50k to 100k words per book) and their prices (5-20 dollar/euro/pound whatever)) you would see that it's fairly reasonable. At least not a total rip off.
        You shouldn't see a CN webnovel as one book but as one book series instead. Coupled with premium, it's a series you have instantly access too. Of course the price to pay for everything in this series will be higher.
        You would pay more for the HP series than just buying a single book (bundles excluded)

          hehehe that's a lotta math right there. I have never spent a penny on spirit stones but I am still up to date on every premium novel because I have separate accounts for each one. Maybe you could do that too. XD

            FleetingClouds Now remove from that 1 million word count all the words that can be attributed to
            A: repeat content
            B: Fluff
            C: Fillers that does not advance story by any single amount. I have lost count of how many chapters that has been virtualy worth nothing but fluff.
            D: Compare a full novel to a series, is pretty accurate. Lets see The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. The longest series I have ever read. Total price for 14 Books with page count breaking over 500 for each one. Is on amazon right now 133USD About 10 or so usd above the full novel listed above. Let me tell you the value there is no where near close. Take a close look at word count. First book alone is 261,290 words and its less then 4 usd. Sure its of the cheapest ones. But the most expensive ones being around 10 usd each. But that would still only translate to roughly 40usd for 1 million words. By one of the biggest most detail oriented writers that has ever lived imo. So how is that even close to the 123usd value for the 731 chapters im just using as an example here, a novel with voer 3000 chapters would be insane priced and still struggle to get close. So no, the value is nowhere near fair.

                Zhevons
                It's not that unreasonable, actually. Because though you could choose to just spend 'some' money on the books, there a few more choices; such as simply 'hoarding' the SS you get for free everyday or by 'hoarding' the chapters until, one day, they will eventually be free.
                I believe it has more to do with patience and how much the reader wishes to read the books. Since, technically, without the SS system and the ads, webnovel has no other ways of gaining revenue, so this is quite biased. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

                    HeWhoReadsBooks Currently, chapters won't become free, ever. The only way to read them for free is with free SS and an ever increasing amount of novels need those. So you either have to make dozens of accounts to keep reading, or drop them until you have enough free SS in a dozen or so years.

                    Just counting the 8 novels I read here, the 7th of which will be premium on the 23rd, I would need over 100 ss per day to read them. My choice is simply dropping anything that goes premium, as with the current state going premium is just a plain disregard for the fans that supported a series.

                    I stopped looking for new stuff, as it's only a matter of time before I would be forced to stop reading, so why bother looking just for the disappointment that is guaranteed to happen?

                      FleetingClouds 1 million words of quality does not have the same value as 1 million words of sub-par quality. It is not reasonable.

                      It's like paying 50 bucks for a large cheese burger meal at McDonalds, but I'd rather pay that much for a good dinner at a nice restaurant.

                      These novels are like fast food, and I dont wish to pay premium for McDonalds. I now have 20+ books on my reading list that have now gone premium and more incoming. If many books are going premium, then wtf is premium?

                          IntuitiveIntrovert Yes I could make more accounts, but that doesnt fix the problem of the overpricing. I dont mind paying, but I dont like getting ripped off. I may get to the point where I just drop all my novels in disgust for the blatant scam.

                            Zhevons I completely agree. However I am unfortunately one of those idiots who keeps digging his hole deeper. Im aware but I cant drop these stories that I enjoy. It's a bittersweet feeling.

                            QI does not value its readers and customers. They only treat us as cash cows for the guilible and loyal people. If they dont treat us with respect, then they dont deserve our respect. I really wish there was a way to face slap them like they do in the novels.

                            At this point, if they are somehow able to get sued and have a class action lawsuit against them, I feel blackhearted enough to jump on this bandwagon. I feel angry enough to destroy this rip off sect down to the roots to stop this evil sect from turning more people into soul slaves.

                              Zhevons
                              Actually man your right about the scam part
                              WN is a scam, there are dozens of other sites that earn money from ad revenue and patreon but WN had to get its own in house currency which is overpriced as hell. Its It's seriously a waste of money paying qidian cuase its a terrible service. They dont quality check their TL or promise a steady release rate while commuting with their readers. There only difference between qidian and the hundreds of other sites out there is that qidian is horribly hated/overpriced etc. Lets not even mention qidian stealing others TL so you basically paying qidian for something thats not theirs. And ive now basically just summed up why most of the novel community just pirates instead of paying qidian

                                Zhevons
                                Point A-C are subjective and can't be used to determine the value of a book. There are too many other factors involved and I didn't deny that most CN are bad or repetitive but if someone is willing to read then pay the apporpriate price. "Hey that book is full of shi1, give it to me for 2dollar," "Hey, your books sounds decent, I will pay you 8 dollars, be grateful!"
                                Point D: you lucky one. I would have to pay 23 euro on amazon for that same book. Or 18 for kindle (dont have kindle). Where is justice now?
                                But again, you are comparing your definition of what a great book is to its price and project that on other books. But this way to determine a value of a book is not realiable. Simply put,
                                I still think that CN aren't overpriced objectively as books (book series). Would I pay the money for these CN? Of course not! Except for those rare gems (WMW, Er Gen novels, some others) I wouldn't do so as most CN simply aren't that unique or good.

                                    Dao_Of_Uselessness
                                    Thats really shi1 if they dont consider the economical situation of your country and expect you to pay the same amount in usd !

                                        COME AND JOIN

                                        All their novel is overprice and lack Quality............ some novel start good but due to QI wanted it to be prolong they prolong the story in which the novel lost QUALITY..................

                                        FleetingClouds

                                        First book on the uk site, which is same market as the eu overall. So I would like to know which version of amazon has the first book for 23 euro that is not a hardcover copy.

                                        Second. I do understand your point, I even agree to it to a point. But you stating its not overpriced can not be defended. The reason is this: LN are nothing but entertainment, in this case written entertainment. In our market its compeditor is mainly Amazon. And compared to Amazon, on word count alone its way way way more expensive then even authors like Robert Jordan, David Webster. Or since Harry Potter was used as an example.

                                        Thats the whole of Harry Potter, for less then 40 Pounds. Page count is 3300 ish The first book of the Wheel of time was over 200 000 words for around 700 pages. That means this is around 4-5 times as long. Lets for fun say its 900 000 words. The price they charge for this completed successfull masterwork, and compared to the CN LN is imense. In what way, are LN of a higher quality ? Of what way are they more worthy as entertainment ? Do we get alot of fillers in these books ? Do we get alot of fluff ? I know these points are subjective and alot of masterwork LN's dont have alot of them. But that does not change the fact that alot of novels do have it, and are being priced based on the same system. Word count, so I am targeting only word count on their pricing for now as the baseline for them being overpriced.

                                        Their only selling feature, is that things gets delivered "daily" or "weekly". Giving us small constant fixes. Its like microtransactions where they want us to keep paying tiny bits for each chapter but a hell of alot over time. I dont mind again spending money, I have bought LN's that has gone up on Amazon, I have bought stones before to feed my addiction, but I managed to get out of the addiction and look at things objectivly and I feel cheated. So if you wish to continue to defend the pricing. Then please give propper argumentation for why it is acceptable to charge more for say Mid Level LN's novels, based on word count alone. Then works like Harry Potter, Wheel of Time etc the MASTERWORKS from this side of the globe among other things. I want to know what makes their work worth so much more, for the level of quality we are getting on average.

                                        Regarding Spirit Stones itself, its not a bad system. Authors deserve to get payed, the publisher deserve to get payed, translators deserve to get payed. But right now their overcharging. The free SS we are getting a day, is perhaps just enough to read 1 chapter for a longer novel, or 2-3 for a smaler ones. I could create more accounts, but first of that i do feel is a cheat, not what is intended and perhaps against their ToS not recalling. And do they deserve to be listened to on that ? Na, I dont think so not with how their treating the readers. But I still have my own prinsiples and wont make more accounts. But this is a little of topic for my post sorry about that. Lets get back to SS, the free ones. I will continue to get those, but because the amount you get, is only enough to read so limited content, and since it expires after 30 days also. It means I can not save them up for anything. I have to "keep" spending them day by day, log in day by day to get them. So I can follow 1 perhaps 2 novels with that. It does not change that picking up new novels is out of the question, as when they go premium and more and more does rapidly. I cant afford to keep reading them. I have spent around 20 USD a month on Qi the last few months. That has let me "catch up a bit" but i still feel cheated of it. This month I wont, because its simply not worth the money. Your thoughts on this ?

                                            Apologies, those links do not work. But go to co.uk amazon version, search wheel of time or harry potter and one can find them.

                                              In last 6days spend over 60$ on SS just to read novels, I already spend it all(ss)...

                                                Vistarion woah dude, I hope you’re joking or just wealthy enough for it to be pocket change, simple math enough to tell ya it ain’t worth it lol. I could had bought LNs or Manga with that much

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