Regnov You can search his name in the toolbar. His book seems to be called Summoner Sovereign and has 215 free chapters. From then on it is premium so I guess it is save to say that he is contracted.
I got Recommended, How does it work?
SuperSilentSin I know of his work I read it in my free time it's in my library I haven't gotten far yet....
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Tomoyuki So in real you only get 1 cent per 200 words?
In connection to that.. Can the average author earn 2000 Dollar a month with 3000 words per day? I know it depends of the author and the novel but that is why I ask for the average... I am curious because I asked myself if you even need the minimum guarantee system...
SuperSilentSin I just now calculated what you need for 3000 Dollar..
You need to release for 30 days, 3200 words per day and you need 625 people paying for your chapters... If that 1 cent thing is correct that should be it. Of course only an example. The question here would be how to get 625 paying readers... It is basically as if ever person pays you 4.80 dollars every month. That is not that high but it isn't low as well...
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SuperSilentSin You earn about 1 cent per 200 words, yes. But you will never earn $2,000 a month even if you write 3,000 words. The hell would you even get that? You only get $200 a month if you write 1,500 words a day, how did you jump to 10 times that amount!?
If you don't bother with minimum guaranteed sum, then unless you have thousands of readers willing to pay for your chapters, sadly, you'll only earn a few cents to less than $10 a month. That is the sad reality. You are not as popular as you think you are, and you definitely will not make more than a hundred dollars, never mind $2,000.
Let's do the calculations for 3,000 words daily for a chapter. That earns you about 30 cents a chapter. In a month that's about $9. 50% is about $4.50. So unless you have 500 readers willing to pay for your chapters (which, let's face it, is extremely unlikely - most people probably only have 1-2 paying readers, maybe up to 10 if you're lucky or really popular), you will never go beyond $2,000.
Three reasons mainly.
1) I personally don't think Immortal Kobold should go premium, it's a passion project for me. I saw there was an absence of monstrous MC books and took up the virtual quill to throw my own book into the pool. I have/had a job which pays my bills, this is personal enjoyment.
2) I'm not comfortable with the concept that it stops being 'mine'. While for copyrights I can understand WN wanting some degree of ownership of the title, the fact my far reaching plans included making it multi book means by contracting TIK they also get my future works based in the same setting. For others doing a one shot this is a non concern. But me, it made me leery even if in the end it affected nothing.
3) As recently proven I was not capable of maintaining releases, TIK is currently in a semi hiatus status due to, primarily, my inexperience. I know my end goal but unlike most writers I'm not writing from an outline so I went a route that in the short term looked good but ultimately killed my ability to write beyond it, thus I'm stuck rewriting some chapters to get back on track. Since I foresaw me stumbling at some point, I thought it better to not test what contract infringement might entail. While many books stumble on the 1.5k release requirement with no hassles, for my own sense of obligation I felt I shouldn't stress myself out over it. I'm a little OCD when it comes to things like this which leads to depression and it spirals so yeah, no wasn't going there.
SuperSilentSin I'm only at 76 collections, I even lost one today :( but I didn't upload for a while in the beginning when I had only 1 collection. So I missed 2 weeks in the new section, after I went out of the new section I almost didn't grow anymore
Tomoyuki For God's sake, I'm so glad someone with any idea about the contract stepped in, reading this thread felt like a disaster...
So let's answer everything, even if I will repeat part of what you already said (Tomo, just can't be bothered to backread, I'm tired as hell)
@Darth_Xiane There might be a way to go premium on webnovel without contracting them. While it still requires contract, and it would be published on the publisher ACC, you would retain your copyright to it, while giving up on part of the potential income and promotion from Webnovel.
3k$? Let me tell you, I'm averaging in top50 trending novels with my first premium novel, and I'm quite happy earning 500$. That means, there is only about 50 novels earning more than mine on this site (in terms of original novels), and while there are some earning even more than 3k, I would never call it average, more like upper upper echelon.
Most of the novels on this site use MGS system in which you are given the chance to earn 200$ monthly for your first four full months of going premium, by uploading 1.5k words daily. Keep in mind that premium chapters HAS TO be at least 1k words long, so that means either 1 chapter a day with 1.5k+ words, or two chapters a day with any number of words.
What's more, you are forgetting about the fact that not only most of the people won't read your novel with coins but rather with fast passes, but also pirate sites do sadly exist.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask as I can't be bothered to look for them in this thread.
Tomoyuki 1 cent per 200 words
include the processing fees from Google Play Store, the Apple App Store, PayPal, and whatever other payment method Webnovel uses, and you are left with about 2/3 of a cent or even less.
Tomoyuki Okay... Webnovel depicted it a little different on their become an author site... furthermore a few month back I read an article here about an original author, who earns 10k $ every month... So I thought the avergae author with full time release would at least gain 1k$ a month...just curious... the translated novels.. they are earning much more aren't they? they have mostly between 20 mio and 100 mio views so I guess they have to pay off pretty well...
btw. is Webnovel doing anything to increase their reader base? like ads or something like that?
I don't want people to stop reading my book after I go premium so it would be cool if there would be a system like the last 14 released chapters are premium the rest free. is that possible? or is it not argueable? Other sites are doing it this way and I always feel like it works quite well for them. Someone here, who knows if patreon is better or the contract? Patreon has the advantage that you can use their search engine... so more people can find you there.
SuperSilentSin Yeah, she was the top author, and I think she only earned 10k for a month, not every month. I'm not sure, you should ask her directly. And keep in mind that the 10k does not include the 50% reduction (basically Webnovel takes away 50% for fees and operating costs).
I do not know about translated novels, I am not part of any translation team.
SuperSilentSin No, there is no such a way that you could implement. Premium chapters are premium, and unless WN decides to change it and lose all profitable contracted original authors, it won't change. WIth how fast passes work, people will still read your novel for free, with your only hope of earning lying on the shoulders of those who will intentionally unlock your chapters with coins (for example, reading it once a month) or will start reading your novel only AFTER you will have quite a bit of those locked chapters and still decides to unlock them rather than going to pirate site to catch up.
MotivatedSloth the thing is that you would have so much work to do only to be legal (I mean taxes etc.) that it is questionable if it is even worth it... I mean 10$ a month means around 100$ per year and that means you could just go and work for 10 hours somewhere else and you have then even a stable income....
.... not sor sure but the good thing is it is not my problem right now. after all no one asked me yet if I want to be contracted... XD
SuperSilentSin Anyone who wants to immediately become a webnovel writer as a full-time job has to be either extremely confident or incredibly naive. Most people just do this for fun, as a side job. It's not enough to make minimum wage.
Also, you need to establish a fanbase and make sure you have plenty of readers willing to pay for your chapters, or it's a no go. I know MotivatedSloth barely earns enough to make a living, and he writes like 3 stories at the same time. And even so, it's like $500 a month?
So be prepared. You will most probably be disappointed most of the time. It's better if you just view this as extra cash you make on the side, rather than a fulltime job.
Tomoyuki okay I will keep it in mind.
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I think Sloth and all others have given some good advice, and from the MGS perspective.
I'm saying this from my own first-hand experience as Non MGS. From the Non MGS perspective, there's 0.000000003 percent change of income. Since any kind of earning is dependent on gift donations.
Once a Non MGS story is finished. It's dust. It'll likely not be featured again. The book will need to rely on past reader base to continue the momentum. There's virtually little chance for new readership after a story has finished, and no point in doing extra effort to promote since the work belongs to WN. Be prepared to walk away, learn from the experience and do something else.
[NB: the 3 percent bit is just figurative btw]
Veronica8 I can't really agree with that. And I think you are confusing MGS with premium.
Your MGS period starts at the start of the month after you went premium. Meaning, if you go premium on 2nd or 29th day of a month, it will start on the 1st of the next month anyway.
Also, MGS is there only to force certain habits into a writer, as they are proven to be the most reliable way to actually increase your income from the novel itself. Also, while it might be just a lucky shot, as soon as my MGS (old one) was over, I got weekly feature, that increased my income by 50% (from 330$ to 486$, so its like 48%?)
Additionaly, I don't think its impossible to earn a nice money from WN. I think everyone forgot that this site continuously grows, and so does the income for the writers. What's more, that income is from my single novel alone, and with the plans to go premium with my other one soon, I hope that by the end of the year, I will be able to earn about 1k$ combined.
It's not impossible to earn a good amount from Webnovel, you just need to work VERY hard. Update daily, always at the same time, learn about writing, have an interesting plot... There is a lot of points that should be brought up to explain it, but don't forget - luck plays a role as well.
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Thanks Sloth. As I said, I'm saying from my experience. That has been my experience and take away from being contracted. So it is what it is. Hopefully, it'll be a different experience for someone else.
I thought premium was MGS. Okay. I got that wrong.
Agree with you that luck plays a role. Yes, working hard is especially needed as well as opportunity to validate the effort.
Add: I hope you also increase in your earnings too. You deserve it :grin:
Veronica8 Thanks :3