Do you even understand what the point of privilege chapter is? If you can use free pass for privilege chapter, then it's no longer "privilege." I might as well not bother writing extra chapters (which takes up a lot of my free time) if people are just going to read them for free. I already do a daily release which you can read for free, and you still want to demand to read my extra chapters for free?

I might as well just watch anime or game with my free time instead of writing extra chapters. It's not as if you don't get your daily chapter even if I do.

That's how Patreon works, by the way. If you donate more, you have the privilege of reading more. How the hell is it fair for my readers who actually pay me to read just as much as people who read my story completely for free? Even if I don't care about myself and my financial crisis, I care about being fair to my readers. If they pay for my story, they deserve to read more than those who do not pay at all. End of story. And it's not like you're not getting free chapters anyway. Just wait like the rest of the other non-paying readers and you'll be able to unlock them normally with free pass everyday. If you pay, I'll give you the privilege of reading extra chapters. If you don't, then wait like the rest - why should you get just as much as my readers who actually pay me? That's not fair to them at all.

Edited: Don't worry, Chyriss, I know you weren't referring to me. The explanation for privilege is directed at Alistaire.

    diegosilang

    I have an advice for you.

    Go find some nearest drug dealers in your area.

    Get some of the ware from them for the promise of paying back.

    Like their instagram, facebook or whatever they are using.

    Send them a private message, that your work in promoting their person has equaled the value of the drugs they gave you and you are in the clean.

    Enjoy the show.

    I saw people complaining about the worth on WN compared to normal books. I saw people complaining about how they were entitled to free reading, but welp, they were at least true to their own stupidity. But you?

    You are just the amalgamation of the worst traits brought to the humanity by the socialism, where people think they are owed something just for the fact that their socially worthless persona (in terms of authors income on the site) actually matters more than the words that I'm writing on this post...

    Or wait, some people actually enjoy my writing, so that means you are worth even less.

    PS: the part about the drugs is just for you to understand how stupid your claim is. I do not promote nor accept or validate the usage of drugs, it was just an ironic mean to get someone presenting level too low for me to use elaborative logic to understand the real implication behind his actions and words on a rather harsh example

      Tomoyuki Just curious, but do authors benefit at all from the points system? If not, I think authors should revolt right now as Webnovel would be earning additional income off the backs of authors from ads while avoiding royalties.

          KoraL No, we don't, but the amount of money they make off ads is so miniscule that it honestly doesn't matter for royalties. If I'm not mistaken, they earn like 0.02 cents per ad view, so it isn't worth revolting against them for that sort of additional income.

              KoraL As Tomoyuki said, I'm not particularly bothered that my fanfic is used for farming on occasion. For one, it's a music & band fanfic; two, readers (and writers are readers too) get rewards for points (even though there are no awesome vouchers anymore in the store); and three, I and writers get another spot for exposure for their novels in the farming section. Besides, I probably entered a cent at most since farming got implemented.

              Otherwise, yeah, I'd be right up with you about WN earning more money off author's backs.

                  Tomoyuki I understand your viewpoint, I also understand Webnovel to ensure their benefit , however they are forgetting who they are targeting, most likely 90% of webnovel user base won't pay for chapter, for the rest of the 10% even this new system will put a strain in their wallet. Beside if the author is heavily investing there time on there work but where will the user base if we can't even afford a chapter. If someone plagiarise your work but profit thru ad but make the content for free , will the user stay loyal and waste their money but still supporting the author (someone will but if webnovel keep on raising the price they can't support the author p) or get free content.

                  Let say you can get a £1000 iPhone for £1 will you pay £1000 iPhone to support apple or buy that iPhone for £1

                      NPC1 I'm a free user, but I'm not going to complain about getting less free stuff than I used to have. It's not my privilege to get free stuff as a free user. While I don't agree with how WN operates, it's more on a lack of communication and customer management side because I agree with you, such drastic changes don't bode well for their customer loyalty.

                      With that said, any argument about some pirating or plagiarizing will always be an ethics argument. I have no respect for those that leave this site because they can read for free on pirate sites.

                      Although I get what you're trying to say with that iPhone analogy, that isn't the best example to use because it's a physical product that's more traceable and monitored than stories on a writing platform. Unless that iPhone is being sold for £1 on Ebay or something similar, I can see why yeah, someone might buy that instead. But that's given that the ebay seller is legit. Anything that's not legit, I'm pretty sure Apple would find and likely take legal measure towards unauthorized sellers.

                      WN has a lot they need to fix. But free users whining to get back free stuff is something I'd never support. If the paid users are significantly affected, that's another issue (like if a coin used to cost 1 cent but now it's 2 cents). But free stuff (that free users also get) should always be taken out of that equation even for paid users. However, I hardly see any paid users complaining. It's just free ones.

                        NPC1

                        Actually, on the contrary to what you believe, according to the information that I got, the abolishment of free coins has shown a strong increase in authors' earning for the month of January.

                          Tomoyuki
                          Chryiss
                          I'm not taking about the usage of fan fics for money. That's another mired pit of sludge. I'm saying that from 1¢ of ad revenue, they provide 100 points to the reader which may be used toward a fast pass. Let's say that only half the points used to buy the cheaper fast pass are from ads. So the fast pass is worth 5¢ and was used to unlock a chapter. Suppose every week, 1000 fast passes from points are used to unlock your contracted novels, and the royalty is 20%. That's $500 per year that Webnovel has earned through a loophole.

                                KoraL Er, I suppose? :thinking: I see what you're getting at, but I caution on using math when we don't know actual numbers. Fast passes are 1000 or 2000 points (idk why some ppl are buying the 2k ones instead of the 1k ones first lol), so people would have to see 500-1000 ads before they get a single fast past. Some readers do read that much, but apparently now you're limited to how many points you can receive in a day.

                                So the individual benefit and loss on reader and writer sides might be small, but I can understand how that can accumulate for WN's ads revenue in a year. But honestly, them earning $500 a year doesn't bother me. It's so little money really, especially if you try dividing that between all the writers.

                                And as you said, fanfic is a whole other swamp. While I don't think profiting off another's intellectual/creative property is right, I imagine some fanfic authors (not me) might feel disgruntled should original writers get ad revenue, but they don't. This whole ad revenue is on the fine line of making money off of using another's property, or as "support" toward the writer individually. (As some fanfic writers receive contracts that allow gift options on their books, but not locked chapters, using this reasoning.)

                                This platform hosts stories for free (something that gets easily forgotten and ignored, taken for granted), and those farming novels get free exposure for their novels. I think a few cents per writer is a fair price to return these two core benefits. Webnovel probably spends more than the average website to host the amount of data on this site and maintain it too. I don't see $500 as a loophole, but another method that gives "free" content to readers and exposure to writers while also benefitting WN. On an individual basis, this seems fair enough to me. The incremental profit WN might gain, imo, is too insubstantial for a writer to fight and waste time for. That's all.

                                This became longer than I meant it to be. In short, I just don't think it's worth it for a few pennies a month. And it's not like WN is the only one that benefits with this points and farming structure. If it did significantly contribute to writer's profits, then of course, I'd 100% be right there with you.

                                    YulongYuXianTaiyin As mentioned above, some fanfic writers apparently receive contracts that allow gift options on their books. They can't profit with coins and locked chapters; instead, gifts are likened to encouraging "donations" on Patreon. Readers can essentially support the author to write, and not necessarily also the content. It's a bit of a gray area, but I understand/accept that reasoning. It's like a how a YouTube singer that covers actual artists' songs can receive monetary support through Patreon or some other means.

                                        Tomoyuki the problem is there are novels with over 1000 pages and every single page costs a fast pass or coins, even though the book has been out for over 2 years. There used to be a passive earning system that just gave you 1 kind of currency for the app for reading. Instead of 2 different kinds of currency setting a privilege system.To me with this new system and membership crap they're saying "Those that spend actual money get whatever content they want, while the rest of you readers that can't afford it you f*ck off and watch some ads" essentially. I used to love using this app because I was able to read continuously while constantly earning the app currency that supports you creators. But now I can't anymore and it sucks because I love the book I'm reading but I can't read it unless I spend either coins that I can't afford or a fast pass I have to buy with this dumb point exchange system that doesn't even work half the time. It's getting harder and harder to want to support creators on this platform now because of this stupid system. The in app currency is what supports you right? So why can't they just go back to the old system where you can passively earn coins for reading again and just keep it at that. Readers will feel more inclined to read your stuff for longer, and you'll continue getting revenue from it because they're spending the coins they earn on your story to continue reading it.

                                            AMB345 There's a slight misunderstanding here. The previous single in app currency SS actually had 2 tiers (free and paid). The free tier did nothing to support authors and the paid tier actually supported authors. If you were gifting free SS to authors, they were paid nothing.

                                              AMB345

                                              1.

                                              AMB345 "Those that spend actual money get whatever content they want, while the rest of you readers that can't afford it you f*ck off and watch some ads"

                                              OBVIOUSLY. Otherwise why the f*ck would you spend actual money if you can't get whatever content you want?! If you're paying actual money, you would think you can get the content you are paying for. Isn't that like the most obvious thing about a transaction? Why are you complaining about that? Do I got into a bookshop and complain that those people who spend actual money can buy whatever book they want, while demanding to receive a book for free just because I spent some time staring at the posters and ads posted all over the walls of the bookshop? Good luck convincing the bookshop staff then. Why should people who don't pay actual money get the same amount of content as those who pay? How is that fair to someone who spends actual money? Are you trolling, or are you really that dense?

                                              2.

                                              AMB345 Readers will feel more inclined to read your stuff for longer, and you'll continue getting revenue from it because they're spending the coins they earn on your story to continue reading it.

                                              This is completely untrue. Writers do not get revenue from free coins. Bonus coins, coins that you earn for free by watching daily ads/checking in/voting do NOT bring revenue. Writers only get revenue from paid coins that were actually purchased through Paypal, bonus coins and free coins do NOT give revenue at all. This is probably the main reason for splitting the currency into two, to differentiate the free currency that generates no revenue, from the paid one that actually gives writers revenue.

                                                    Chryiss Well $500 was an estimate based on 1000 cheapo fast passes to a single popular novel. There were at least 40k cheapo fast passes sold last week and 20k pricy fast passes sold, so multiply that $500 number by 80 to cover total approximate avoided royalties of $40k. Also, I don't know if a 20% royalty is accurate, but a 25% royalty changes the number to $50k and 15% changes it to $30k that isn't being distributed to authors.

                                                        KoraL Fast passes and points do not generate revenue, so I have no idea where you pulled that $500 figure from. Are you talking about ads? Let's say you watch an ad every 2 minutes, which gives you 5 points or so. To get a fast pass for 1,000 points, you'll need to watch 200 ads. According to CKTalon, Webnovel gets only 0.02 cents per ad view. So that's 4 cents for a single fast pass. Even if you somehow get 1,000 fast passes, that's $40, nowhere near the $500 you're claiming. Let's multiply that by 80 as you suggested - so you have $3,200 that isn't being distributed to authors. Given that you have close to a few hundred contracted authors on this site, you have to divide the $3,200 among a few hundred (let's say 300). So, what, they avoid paying us $10 (if it's 500, it's basically $6)? And how do you distribute this "avoided royalties" among the writers, given that we are paid per view?

                                                        In fact, given the minimum guaranteed sum, it's fair to say that this extra revenue being generated by ads goes to paying the $200 (or $400 for older writers) that's guaranteed for new contracted writers, regardless of how much they earn (for example, I only get paid $1 in my first month because I'm such a pathetic writer and nobody wants to read my stories - Webnovel is paying me $399 out of their own pocket - where do you think they get this money from? Most likely from other revenues, such as those generated by ads). So what exactly is there for us to complain about? That we are denied $6-$10 a month?

                                                            It's pretty obvious to me that fast passes and coins are only meant to give you samples of the content behind a paywall. If you really want to support your favorite novel, then paying to support the author's writing is the obvious choice.
                                                            If you can't afford it, then you settle for the hundreds and thousands of free novels that are available, in which chances are, you'll end up finding something else similar.

                                                            Tomoyuki The math was done in a prior post assuming ads gave 2 points a piece and 500 was per annum per thousand fast passes per week. I don't actually know the contract details, and since it's all hush hush, of course I wouldn't know about the guarantee portion as I don't know if the royalty bit was accurate either. I do know though that if your royalty payout ever exceeds the guarantee amount, Webnovel has at least broken even on your writing guarantee based on a 50% quota share.
                                                            Also, you may not mind losing out on 100 USD a year, but others may not.

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