When I used this site before I noticed that some authors who got authored a contract did not sign as they said the contracts heavily took advantage of u (something similar I dont remember). But on the other hand, others do sign the contract. Writing is more of a hobby to me as I drop the novels after a while, but recently I talked with some writers that are my dad's friends and they get paid for not doing freebies, but by actual publishing. Some were Amazon, others ebooks, and lastly the last were publishing. The ebooks barely msde anything so Ill ignore that.

I wish to ask about how much u get paid/can expect from WN/patreon stuff. Im a college student who in luck my parents can pay for my expenses. I have no job as Id have no freetime and need to sacrifice some sleep with my credit hours. If I wish to make extra money I can honestly only look back to writing as I am better than average.

Can authors share how much they make? I wish to know whether I should go back on this site and wait for a bit to get paid, or ifbI should look to amazon or ask my dad's friends to introduce me to some publishers. I wish to do WN if there isnt much of a diference because Im doing this emo for fun and have enough money to eat at restaurants once in a while more than a living. WN will get a lot more views (probably) since its free, but it might make me make like no profit compared to others :/

    Eslyna It depends on your reader base. Just know that 1 paid spirit stone = $0.01. And if your novel goes premium, you are guaranteed to get paid for the first four months. $200 for 40k words or above. $300 for 60k words and above. $400 for 80k words and above. And you can only get the money if you earn at least $200.

        Reinesse 1 spirit stone = US$0.02, not $0.01.
        Eslyna If you are asking how much I get paid, personally, I can tell you absolutely zero. I guess the very popular ones earn a couple hundred a month, but there are some who are little better than me who only earned a few cents from donations alone.

              Reinesse You need to make it clear that earning below $200 is stored to be sent out once the cumulative amount crosses $200.

                  Tomoyuki but the share of contracted and wn 50-50? one ss is $0.02 and the half of it is $0.01?

                      Reinesse 50% after everything, but you also need to factor in distribution channel costs, operating costs and other costs. So it's not as cut and dry as just dividing the spirit stones by 2. It's more like revenue from chapter income minus operating costs and other costs, then only after that you divide by 2.

                      LostInFictions That is correct. Admittedly I haven't even been contracted for that long, though. I don't know about most of the other contracted writers, but one does make quite a lot (in the hundreds, I think, but his novel is rated top 20 or something?), and another makes just a few cents after 4 months from donations alone.

                          Eslyna

                          As far as I can tell, fanfics one don't provide much or anything at all. Even if you write for a year or two (depending on popularity) you may still earn less than $200.

                          (Because chapters of fanfics can't go premium)

                            Here's my 2 cents (Get it, because that's how much you earn per SS... It's funny). I'm not a contractor, but I can tell you the same others told you. It depends on your place in the rankings and the amount of paid SS spent on your book. 40k words might seem doable, but that would mean you need daily updates of chapters at least 1350 words in length... Every day and every month. So that is something to think about, if you want to get the minimal $200 per month.

                            If you wanted to write 80k words per month, you'd need double of that really, so around 2700 words per day. Adding in the edits and so on (as paying an editor might not be viable, or getting one for free might take long), it turns into a full time job, not a hobby. It is doable as I said. If you can release a few chapters during weekends, then surely you can earn some money while still working (studying) irl. How long you can keep that pace, is a different story.

                            So that is concerning the guaranteed payments. But if you are lucky, and your novel takes of, being in top 20, you will get 10k SS per week? assuming half of that is paid SS (because you don't get paid if the SS are free). You get $100 (yea that much). Not sure if that is your income, or if they still calculate their share from that. Same for gifts. At top 20, from what I saw around 2000 in gifts. Again, not all gifts will be paid with the use of paid SS. People gift stories with their free SS, for xp and such. Again assuming half of that is paid, you get another $20. That is relatively average situation, in case you were in top 20. Best case is if all your SS are paid SS. In that case, you earn something like $240 - $300 (for being in top 20 mind you). The top 3 will earn something like $800-$1200 each week (I made a mistake there and wrote month, so not bad at all). That is BEST CASE! I don't live in world of best case, and I can tell you those numbers would be halved.

                            Still a decent pay if you are in top 20. You get around $600-$2500 a month. Worst case? You earn nothing or the minimum $200 for 40k words. Best case? You get to top 3, then you earn much more. Of course, that is for your chapters, excluding any merchandise they might sell or other adaptations like webcomic and so on.

                            I actually have a doubt... For me Everything is clear in case of orginal works... But what about the translated ones... Will the author earn or the translater???? Does all the rules for original works also apply to translated ones or is there some different criteria!!!!!

                              Mochimoshu translators and editors have fixed pay and fortunately, they are not shabby. as for the authors of the translated books, they also get a share. it's just unknown how much.

                              but in webnovel, the hierarchy is like translator then editor then the lowest are original authors.

                                  Reinesse ohh it's in that way!!!!

                                  I gift to some of the translated works... take ex -TKA, I gifted with paid ss whenever I felt like the story was going in an interesting way... Then the money would go to the translater/ the author or just to the WN!!!!
                                  Do you have any idea about this?????

                                      Reinesse the hierarchy is like translator then editor then the lowest are original authors

                                      The irony of course being that their translators are usually garbage, their editors don't actually do any real editing, and the person valued least is the only one generating quality work.

                                          LostInFictions

                                          Sorry about that. It's not to say people dont make that much, only that those people are the most successful out there. Many writers who have been published irl dont even make enough to quit their day job to write full-time. And WN pays less by far than standard publishing, assuming you make any money at all.

                                            Mochimoshu
                                            My belief from the forums here, no personal knowledge, is the original author typically gets 30% of the gift. The translators typically don't get anything directly - they are paid flat fees by WN. Obviously, those fees could be higher for those novels that bring in a lot of money to WN. So WN gets 70%, but has to pay the translators their fees.

                                            I gifted TKA a paid crown, so I'm expecting the original author got $12 or so. But perhaps not. TKA is big enough, and was big enough before moving to WN, that they probably had a custom contract.

                                                CrispyCritter Translators get flat rate but they can choose to get 30% share rather than flat rate. Most translators choose flat rate. Although, translators also get 30% of gifts. The Chinese Original authors get 30% of the total income too, including premium chapter income, Privilege and Gifts.

                                                As for non Chinese original authors, they get a cut of 50% for everything. For the top authors, usually they can get 50k to 70k usd a year, and it is still growing rapidly every month.

                                                    Clowniac translators are usually garbage... cktalon is a translator and he lurks around here and he is definitely decent.

                                                      WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL but still chinese authors make more, obviously. and of course, it will grow and grow because webnovel keeps on growing. the number of downloads last year compared to now has a terrifying difference. how do you guys advertise?

                                                      EDIT: nvm, i saw your ad in youtube. and i remember seeing trial marriage on messenger. then sometimes facebook along those werewolf or sold lady or slave lady reading apps. in wn, ofc it's ceo.

                                                        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.

                                                                              a month later
                                                                              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?

                                                                                    fieryQueen

                                                                                    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.

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