Privileged chapters
CKtalon I want to know why you are caping so hard for Webnovel. It's apparent that this is just the latest in their history of unethical money-grubbing business practices, but still so deep into this very long thread you keep pulling out rationalization after weak rationalization. Why are you so invested in trying to wipe QI clean after they crap in their readers' mouths? Genuinely curious.
Seems like Privilege is just not implemented as well as it could be (web app developer here).
As I see it, the idea is that you pay extra to read chapters in advance. Issue is that the pricing scheme makes no sense and deters most readers from even considering it.
My recommendation: Have a scale of some sort where if you want to read a chapter that is X chapters ahead, you pay Y SS. The exact formula for this is up to you.
The simplest strategy? Y = X. So if you read a chapter that is 50 chapters ahead you pay 50 SS on top of the cost of the chapter itself. This works out the same. 2500 / 50 = 50 SS / Chapter, but it's more accessible if you only read a few chapters a head. This let's the reader determine how far they are willing to read ahead. The cheapest price is 500 SS / 15 chapters = ~ 33 SS / chap. This system would allow you to get 33 chapters for that price. If you want closer to your system, it becomes more like Y = 2X, where you pay 2x as many chapters you are ahead by.
There are various other formulas that could be used, for example, Y = ceil(X / 10) * 10, so if you are 1-10 chapters ahead, you pay 10 SS, if you are 11-20 chapters ahead, you pay 20 SS and so on.
I personally spend a few 1000 stones a month, but the cost/benefit just isn't there with how privilege is currently setup), so it's not that I can't afford it, it's just that it's not reasonable. I'd like to be able to read ahead, but I'd want more control over exactly what I'd pay.
This kind of sliding scale approach would let me and others determine exactly how far we are willing to read ahead without being grouped into "5/15/25/50" chapter allotments, where the SS/chap makes little sense (40/33/40/50). I'd rather make that determination on a per chapter basis. If I'm 40 chapters ahead, and it get's boring, I might wait a while until the SS price drops until I feel it's worth resuming, but with this system, losing privilege while way ahead makes for a high risk of dropping the novel and thus no SS for WN. Likewise, if I'm only 10 chapters ahead and I get to a good part, I'll be more inclined to read ahead if I know it's only going to cost me a few SS more per chapter (on average) to read say 10 more chapters, rather than dropping a few 100 SS to read only a bit ahead.
Most chapters are around 5-15 SS, so 33-50 SS means paying for about 2-10 chapters worth of SS, just to read a single chapter ahead, let alone the 5-50 chapters you are actually paying for, in advance, and who knows how many of those are actually worth being ahead on.
Are people going to pay it anyway? Sure, but as a fraction of those who buy SS, it seems like it would be rather low indeed. If it was more a ramp up, I imagine the number of people who would buy them is quite high and even 1 SS extra on a chapter is around 10-20% extra SS per chapter. It's really easy to say "Well I've paid X SS extra to be X chapters a head, meh, I'll just pay (X + 1) SS extra to be X + 1 chapters ahead". And you can bet those that are willing to pay 50 SS per chapter to be 50 chapters ahead are probably going to be 50 chapters ahead or perhaps 100 chapters ahead if the stock pile is that big (in which case 100 chapters is 100 SS extra).
As long as the regular releases draw directly from the stockpile, so authors don't simply only add to the stock pile without releasing anything outside of it, it seems like a solid way to go.
It's a bit shady, but I could see an translator releasing say a 1000 chapter series, with everything initially in stock pile (official releases start the next day/week/month, say 3 chaps a day), and if you binged, you could read the entire 1000 chapters before they are officially released. Would cost just under half a million SS (WN gonna need some higher tiers to buy SS in bulk), but it's possible. If even a single user did that, it would bring in more SS than 100s of others.
This means it would be practical for any sized stockpile, as long as there was a minimum release rate when a novel has a stockpile (1 chapter a day seems like a good absolute min, even when the author isn't expanding the stockpile), then the author is encouraged to keep increasing the stockpile size as the higher it is, the more SS they are likely to get. It also provides a good way to gauge current interest in a novel. A novel where there the top say 10% of readers are 30 chapters ahead is perhaps more interesting to readers than one where the top 10% are only 10 chapters ahead.
This is app is getting to much the cost of SS per chapter was already a little much. This Privilage crap is to much every nee chapter is locked behind a double pay Wall. It costs 50$ for 50 chapters im sorry F right off. You can go buy a book at a store for cheaper i get translation takes time but you know it takes mkre time to create a book. Im sorry i refuse to pay any of this. I can't read any lf my novels with out spending money to open the chapter snd then more money for a chapter. Im about done with Webnovel you are to greedy and are going to ruin this community wuxiaworld is 100% better it is so sad to see so much greed i love all the novels not enough to spend 50-80$ CAD per one to only get 50 Chapters thanks but big hard PASS.
LaoTze
Cktalons is a paid employ of Webnovel, so its probably in his contract that he has to always take Webnovels side or else face the risk of getting fired.
honestly only see the privilege thing actually being of use if it was a original author with a stockpile of chapters but double paying SS just for translated and not even up to date material that is just sad
CKtalon Not too fussed about the Privilege system, but i do take issue to people that keep saying that this isn't impacting regular releases, white robed chief and a few other novels didn't get updates for 2 weeks before this system became active, the translators blamed a bug, but don't release the chapters that were supposed to be released, well they do, but they make those chapters privileged, so we've missed 2 weeks of regular releases while they clearly stockpiled for this system.
Nizze No, I wouldn't. I release everything just as I finish writing. Thats why I have 0 stockpile. If I were to make advance chapters, I would have to work super hard to write 3 chaps a day instead of 2 and leave on to stockpile. I don't cheat my readers. Also, its author that sets the price. I personally wouldn't ask my readers to pay this much and I even asked them how much they are willing to pay, I wouldn't stop uploading just so I have advance chapters. Thats unethical and I value my readers.
OverseerRose You are assuming that Privilege equals to being able to read the chapters, which wasn't stated in the rules. But the cost of Privilege is clearly stated. As I said, it's unfortunate the rules weren't very clear which is why it was changed.
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Piokilek Eh? What are you talking about? I wasn't talking about a cut from the royalty fees, but from the privilege fees. You claimed that the translators don't get anything from those "advance chapters". Those advance chapters are going to be or are already funded from the privilege fees. Privilege fees is not equal to royalty fees. Royalty fees indeed belong to the authors and may or may not include the privilege fees, it depends on the license agreement relating to the intangible in question. Authors may get a cut from the privilege fees as a part of their royalty fees, but it doesn't mean that translators should not be getting any cuts from those privilege fees.
Anyway, I already read a post on another thread by @CKtalon that translators do get a fair share from the Privilege fees. So your argument is invalid. You're just making things more confusing.
WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL but i can't read it even though its still free. The locked chapters cant be unlocked too because the priviledge chapters keep showing/ pop up..
even though i have SS...
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Cantiara @Piokilek is viewing it from an author's viewpoint. The idea is that the translators are already paid a flat fee for their work, so they shouldn't deserve more, but the way the web novel translation industry has developed is a little different, mainly being how web novels are very long and that they are serialized.
Translators are paid to do chapters, but they aren't incentivized to do more than they need, so if they are expected to do 10/week, they do 10/week. Of course, doing more allows them to get paid more, but some of them think of this more as a part-time job instead of a full-time job. Or, they just do enough to make ends meet, and enjoy the rest of their free time. Various reasons. But this 'slow' speed affects reader enjoyment, so there's definitely a need for some mechanism to incentivize them.
Then, Webnovel allows translators to choose to switch to a royalty scheme. In theory, if a book is doing well, a royalty scheme will give money to the translator for work done years ago, and there's potential to earn more than a fixed rate. Of course, releasing more will also increase the amount earn, since they are now paid when the chapter actually is paid by readers and not when it's submitted to Webnovel (flat rate pay). But then comes the problem, that not all books are very profitable. Some might even be a loss compared to the flat rate pay because the book just isn't popular. Hence, to not 'gamble', some people just stick to flat rate.
Privilege is in a way to give those who absolutely want to read ahead at whatever cost that option. This Privilege money earned is now split between the translator, author, and Webnovel without a need to switch to a royalty contract, so it will boost earnings for the translator during the course of the book's serialization release. The hope is that this will incentivize translators further to keep constant release rates and also build a stockpile.
CKtalon
One more Point change the Terms of Service http://hschuster.userweb.mwn.de/Gesetze%20pdf/DS-GVO.pdf
Because this:
10 .Your California Privacy Rights
Residents of California have the right to request a disclosure describing what types of personal information we have shared with third parties for their direct marketing purposes, and with whom we have shared it, during the preceding calendar year. You may request a copy of that disclosure by contacting us at service@webnovel.com.
Should be for the entire EU Population because of the GDPR from 2016 every site that collects data from members of the EU must give the member their collected data after a request.
A book that charges 10 spirit stone per page 10ss x 300pages = 3000 spirit stone that is 50$ For a American author selling a hard cover books they get royalty's most hard cover books sell at 5-15$ and the author only get a faction 99cent to 3$ most per book and maybe a signing bonus on 1,000 to 5,000. Now days on kindle you can get 300 page books for 1.99$ 2.99 3.99 all the way up to 9.99. Overprice i could under stand paying 2x or 3x for original author website and translators but we are at 5x times the price.
Privilege i can understand getting bonus money for faster release but 2500 spirit stone for 50 chapters is 50 spirit stone a chapter including the you still have to unlock it but that making each chapter cost 4x to 16x ( 3spirit stone chapters) the regular the price. So say you privilege unlock 300 pages of a 10 spirit stone book that is 300$ and to completely unlock it is another 50$ that is a 350$ book. Let be reasonable if any Author and book company was making this much money they be crying tear of joys same with kindal and barns and noble
Wonders how much it cost to get the novel in US currency untranslated would like to compare to how much it cost translated
