- Edited
At least do correct math.
At the worst price value, 1$ = 50 ss.
1 ss = 200 words.
Therefore
$0.02 = 200 words
Therefore
$0.01 = 100 words
$0.0001 = 1 word.
Lock on max premium chapters
AuthorWiz How does that compare to CN Qidian's prices? Correct me if I'm wrong but from what I've heard others say, it's cheaper over there?
I think it's fine that there isn't a limit on the locked chapters, it's the author's hard work and we can't expect to be handed things for free. That said, it is only Webnovel that doesn't give out free daily chapters - this is the only thing that bothers me. I'm of the opinion that those who will pay, will pay, and those who won't, won't. So there shouldn't much of a loss in releasing free dailies, perhaps there would even be a gain?
Anyway, I think it's kind of like a slap in the face that Webnovel don't follow the rest of the community regarding this. And it's not like their premium novels are of a higher quality than other translated works, sure, some are good, but most are bad. And there are many excellent works available for free (or free dailies) on other sites.
In the end, though, it all comes down to communication. Webnovel don't say anything to us, they just make changes -> let us figure them out -> let us be angry -> wait for things to simmer down -> repeat. And it's disgusting.
AuthorWiz I find it difficult to understand why you keep defending this company at every turn. You're a good author with a good book, one that many enjoy, but surely even you can see that QI's practices have been less than satisfactory since their founding. This company is built on false promises, little communication, and pretty much no concern for their customers. In any case, that's another topic altogether. Now, regarding the discussion at hand, you keep saying word count this and word count that, but I think it is imperative (especially for these translated CN novels) to NOT be judged based on word count. That is an absolutely HORRIBLE idea for anyone who has read the majority of these novels out there. Why? Fillers. 70% of entire novels being fillers. In western practice, you usually judge a novel's price by its quality and/or popularity with word count being a relatively small factor (compared to the aforementioned criteria anyway). I have seen huge books for $10 and also fairly small books for $50. If I go to a publisher here with a novel equivalent to 1200 average CN novel chapters and 1000 of those chapters being absolute crap or fillers and tell them I wish to price the whole thing for $300, they might straight slap me across the face. I got nothing against you and I believe the quality of the novels you write is superb, but you should not speak up for bad businesses. Randomly locking previously unlocked chapters is not good business practice. I'm not here saying that these novels don't deserved to be priced. Certainly, they must be priced for the effort that went into them. I just think the current price is not fair. At least, not for most of them.
- Edited
I feel that everyone is over aggressive about this issue. Online translations before QI arrived in the market were all free to read, half because translators just want to share, half because they legally can't paywall novels they don't hold the copyrights too. You can donate to surrport their "translation service" but that was all.
As a result, we all became used to this. When QI came along, the original copyright holders of these novels, they didn't immediately upset this trend but also released all chapters free, before moving step by step toward the business model they have always used.
It needs to be understood that QI are a company, and every decision made are done so in the company's best interests. A company runs to make profits, it is the sole reason for its creation. Most of the hate being directed at QI in quite uncalled for, some people purely complaining that they can't afford it, therefore the company should lower the price for them. From a business perspective, this is simply a joke and nobody who is in charge of pricing will ever take it seriously.
As for who complained that they are just profiteering off what they have previously profited off, this is an extremely distasteful way of putting it. What they are doing, is taking their product and expanding it to an international market. This is purely business development.
@WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL (I don't know if that works)
In regards to the current pricing of spirit stones, I would request that it is considered for a reevaluation.
The current price packets could be considered cheap at first, but not any longer. With the growing number of novels being added, and more and more chapters being premium, the average reader cannot financially support keeping up to date with more than a few novels. This will only become more severe as more novels are added.
I believe the current prices of the packages are perfectly fine, but the spirit stones are becoming more and more insufficient. Even from the business perspective, when consumers get more for their money, they are more willing to spend it.
- Edited
You are mischaracterizing me.
I have written like 3 comments correcting misinformation about SS prices.
I have not "defended the company at every turn."
Also:
You seemed to have missed the point.
A 1200 chapter long CN title is not a single book.
It would be better viewed as 10-15 books in a series, each one costing ~$5-10.
No one is going to try and publish a 1,200,000 word length piece as a single book. That is longer than the entire Harry Potter series, which was 7 books, many of them considered very long.
Redzeth So there are people out there who will point out that “oh but you already got half a million words for free” but let’s be real. We read because it’s free and fun and we enjoy it. I get where u r coming from. Before qidian was great and it didn’t charge much if anything maybe 4 ss to read the 5 most recent chapters right. Now it’s been absolutely abused. And it’s bullshit. The readers, us, enjoy this because we can relax and get lost in a novel but now each time I go to the next chapter it’s pay 11 ss or 14 ss. It’s deviated from the original goal and the translators and the company has lost sight of what made them popular in the first place. It was free. It was fun. Now...it’s not. My favorite novels are originals because they are different in many ways from the norm but then the second they become popular it’s all about the 
. Sure it’s a job but at first it was just for fun right? Think of your favorite sports player or idol. At one point they were just like u. They had idols and dreams. But once they got big they move away to big houses and no longer associate with you. Fame and fortune rule their lives. It’s the same here. 
TheNobleLion The funny part is that @AuthorWiz did just that. He made his “3rd book” free then the next it was premium. Also I have gotten tired of people not realizing that we only read their books because we like to read not because we like to wipe our asses with money. In other words we don’t want to pay!
AuthorWiz So it costs 5000 ss to read a million words? Who the fuck would want to do that? It was free! FREEEEEEEEE! If it’s free on a different website why charge for it on here. It’s like there is a couch for free on the street and along comes qidian who picks it up and decided to flip it. Sounds fine but the couch originally cost $100 but they try to sell it for $1000. Why would you buy it when you could find the same couch somewhere else for way less?
- Edited
Lol yes, I gave my 3rd book away for free, and informed my readers that it would eventually be made Premium later.
I made it free for quite a while, and was open about it being made Premium by giving more than a week's warning, so everyone at the time could read it.
I know you don't want to pay, but I will spend hundreds to thousands of hours on my writing, working with editors, etc.
Don't you think I deserve to be paid for that as well?
You can already read everything I write free using daily SS. I think it's a bit entitled to demand that I not be able to make a living off my writing, no?
I want to be able to write even faster, and give my readers more content! But I can't do that if I can't make a living off my writing.
People that do fan translations, the "cheap couch," usually don't have the permission of the author, and are stealing the author's work and using it to profit without giving the author a dime.
AuthorWiz Daily ss only can maybe support 1 book but now all the books are premium and I don’t understand why there is no max on the chapter limit for premium. Before all this it was the 5 most recent chapters. Now it can be 100s of chapters locked. It’s bs. You work hard but u translators lost sight of what made your work so popular. It was free and fun. Now you have fallen low.
AuthorWiz I don't mind paying but explain to me why some of the series I'm following have the free chapters relocked and some don't.
The fact that the site has bugs when it comes to locking, unlocking and relocking is annoying. Every time there's an update you get at least few posts noting a bug in the system and there's no way to prove that you unlocked it by yourself. You are dependent on QI's log which you can't even download as a text file for yourself as a receipt. If that becomes bugged you are SOL and QI will not care for you.
I shld read this : https://mybookcave.com/authorpost/ebook-word-count-does-size-matter/
This explains what’s wrong with QI way of pricing books and also why it is OverPrice.
And also why word count shldnt be the impt factor.
MaryFord I also facing this problem!!
Premium is really expensive, since february i bought SS for a total of about 420$
In the beginning it was ok, but now im at around 50$ each month.
At the moment i support 7 novels and that is AFTER i reduced my premium novels, without reducing them, i would now be at around 20 novels, but i simply lack the money.
50$ is already a huge expenditure for me, but if i read the other novels which i paused, i would likely be at 150$ a month!!!
It would be nice if webnovel could change the system somehow!
Kitame So true!
Misguided_Rooster your message is truly appreciated. As an author my self, a chapter takes at least an hour to finish, thus I understand if some authors/translators allow previously free chapters to be paid as a reward for their earlier hardwork. Sadly, that also cost authors less readers but oh well, we can't please everyone.
denthoughts What u feel to note is that the chapters each cost way too much for anyone to read. You shld try writing other site and then using patreon. You will probably earn more after a certain time than being here.