WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL are you guys talking about liquid net? Or 50k/year is the gross?
How much do you get paid on WN contracts + donations?
SrtaA The money put into authors pocket.
Wait so top writers on here make 50k-70k USD a year? How is that possible?
SrtaA I’m confused too since it says on front page 200/400$ a month, I just don’t see how it can add up to 50k or Maybe I’m missing something here?
ThyUnknownSaint No, that's the minimum you receive for the first four months, and if you don't earn anything, they wait until you accumulate $200 before paying you.
However, it's a commission-based salary, so you get $0.02 for every spirit stone spend to unlock your premium chapters by your readers (after fees, taxes, 50% going to Webnovel, etc.). So, if you have 1,000 readers paying 10 spirit stones for your chapters everyday (assuming you maintain a daily release schedule), you get 10,000 spirit stones a day for 30 days, which equates to about $6,000 a month, maybe about $3,000 after all the deductions. That's easily $36,000 a year. So if you have 2,000 readers paying 10 spirit stones for your chapters, or your chapters cost 20 spirit stones each, that's $72,000 a year. The most popular novels usually have several thousand readers, so...you can do the math.
$50-70k/year? Guess I'll stick with writing as a hobby then as I make more than for my day job.
kazesenken You have to actually succeed and be popular to earn that kind of money. One does not simply write and expect to earn that much. Only 1% of the writers on this site ever earn that amount or more.
Having read the terms of the contract, and having spoken to a decent segment of contracted writers over the past week, you're lucky to make anything at all after the initial guaranteed payout period. The ones who make 5-6 digit incomes from doing this could probably be counted on two hands, and of those, they probably only actually saw about 10% of what their story actually earned, if that. And that's before taxes.
I mean, if they're happy with that, great. I want people to be happy, and 50-70k isn't too bad for a 10% royalty. That's decent money for a legit contract advance irl. But that payout rate on physical books actually takes into account physical irl marketing, physical irl printing, graphic designers, print layout, focus grouping, and a bunch of other expenses WN doesn't have at all or has a significantly reduced cost of. When you factor that in, plus the obsene amount of writing that you have to do to not lose the contract, that kind of money is actually very stingy, by standard publishing levels.
That's just my two cents, for whatever it's worth. If it makes you happy to be contracted on here, and it makes you money, and you're not able to land a "real" publishing contract yet, then good for you! Some small success, even under very unideal terms, is better than no success!
Tomoyuki
I was being sarcastic, lol.
I wouldn't bother with a contract even if the terms were a lot more favorable. Perfectly happy with writing as a hobby and making a good novel than attracting any prestige.
But that may be cause I have a cushy job to keep me from being a starving artist.
kazesenken Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, most of the writers here have a main job, writing is just their hobby or side job. I don't think anyone intends to make money out of it.
Tomoyuki this is great information. Thank you.
a month later
WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL Are translators able or allowed to switch from percentage to flate rate and vice versa?
11 days later
since they're so many experienced writers on here if you were to sign the webnovel contract as an original author which would you pick editor or translator?
since they're so many experienced writers on here if you were to sign the webnovel contract as an original author which would you pick editor or translator?
since they're so many experienced writers on here if you were to sign the webnovel contract as an original author which would you pick editor or translator?
If they offer you a contract as an original author, and you accept it, then you'll be an original author.
A translator and an editor are two different positions, and each of them has its own recruitment procedure.
Cantiara thank you
Cantiara thank you
Cantiara thank you
10 days later
WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL so there is hope for me! Lol.