I really really hope for the subscription to be brought back. It is impossible financially to keep reading all these novels. The loss of readers to these novels must be greater than the amount of money the authors make generally. I like this app but I just can't afford the novels. I give trying not to give up.

    Same here, i even suggested a random huge discounted ss once a month to WN but im not sure if they really read it. Im desperate 😭

      Time for a little story.

      I'm currently ranked 47 for the webnoval Nightfall, which is one of the most expensive novel on site since the chapter can be god damn long (Only webnoval l've seen with chapter at 26ss).

      For those who don't know there is 3 ways to gain contribution point:

      1. Spend ss to unlock chapters. 1ss = 1 contribution point.
      2. Gifts. 1ss = 1 contribution points.
      3. Skipping ads with ss. (Irrelevant here) 1ss = 1 contribution point.

      I have 3853 contribution point. And I'm only at chapter 357/871. The top contributor as 7647 contribution point.

      Here is the problem now.

      I'm 47 on the ranking list, which mean basically that at most 46 people read the novel entirely while paying ss. At 7500+ ss for the entire novel that mean catching up when starting the novel require basically 150 USD worth of spirit stone.

      Basically the price make it impossible for anyone to catch up to the novel.

      Even if there is no subscription model in the future would be nice to be able to buy the whole novel at once for a fixed price. (One that isn't insane Qidian please.)

      Agreed. The sad part is that some of this fits exactly what many opponents to QI said would happen when QI first started. Readers want to support the authors and translators whenever possible, but marketing and payment expectations are significantly different between western and eastern countries.

      A subscription seems like a fair way to balance everyone's needs, but they just have to find the right price to make it practical. That doesn't always mean more expensive though. My guess is that this experiment primarily only pulled in the people that were already buying SS due to the high subscription cost they used. That means they were probably taking a very significant loss in income compared to what they made before the subscription process started. If the cost is low enough to pull in a lot more readers that are relying on free SS, however, then they could tap into a large pool of readers. That should allow QI to make a lot more money than they did with this past subscription experiment.

      I haven't seen any numbers to really know the prices needed to make any of this work, but I would love to see a tiered system established. For example, it could be something like this:
      The Basic level has a very low cost ($5 - $10 a month?), and you pick 5 or so novels every week or month to have free reading rights for those novels during that time frame. You still get free SS from daily tasks to use for other novels or for donations.
      The Normal level is moderately priced ($15 a month?), and you get unlimited access to novel chapters. This is basically what they just tried to do, but it's cheaper. To help save on costs, free SS from daily tasks are now converted to extra experience or something without a monetary value.
      The Fan level gets more expensive ($20 a month?). Everything is just like normal access except you get 2 new additions. You get a unique tag showing your subscription level when commenting, and you also regularly get a support token you can donate to an author/translator of your choice for them to get something extra (similar to SS donations).
      The Enthusiast level costs a bit more ($30 a month?), and it takes the Fan level a step further by giving you more support tokens to donate to the authors/translators of your choice. At the same time, the tag that shows up with your comments needs to be cooler than the one for Fan level.
      * The Supporter level is for high rollers ($50 a month?), and it is just like the Enthusiast and fan levels, but you get more support tokens to donate. The tag displayed also needs to be better than any of the others, and maybe there should be an achievement as a true supporter.

      This subscription model would allow lower prices to entice those not willing to buy SS due to the low return on cheap SS investment. At the same time, it provides incentives and recognition for those with spare money to provide extra support for the authors/translators as well as their ability to subsidize some of the lower cost subscriptions. This ultimately allows more novels to be read which creates more enthusiasm and excitement for QI, and that eventually feeds into more subscriptions. It could potentially be a win-win for everyone.

      CultureLover

      Write a Reply...
      Novel Ask