• Questions
  • Would you read a story that will never have a contract signed?

If the author announces in an author's note in the first chapter of the story that they will never put their story behind a paywall, would it sound suspicious to you?

I am planning on not signing a contract with Qidian since I don't believe readers should have to go through a paywall to access my written content. Would it increase readership?

    Tbh I agree with you, Im also reluctant to have to lock my chapters and make the readers pay
    Altho there are many my stories from what Ive seen that have a loyal following without being contracted, so its all about exposure

    And from what Ive been able to pick up around here is that if you arent contracted its hard to get exposure on webnovel

    At least thats what I know, correct me if Im wrong

      Dude, do you know how I can post fanfiction in your section?

        QuestionER

        MatchaMilk
        There are many authors who doesn't sign contract and they still have their own fanbase.
        There is one novel with name
        Loving you too much.
        It's just 108 chapters or so and I am reading it. As much as I know the author has written many other novels And hay Never signed a contract. But it still has a good amount of fans.

          Sally112425
          I checked out the story, but I noticed that there are locked chapters. Does webnovel lock chapters for all stories after they reach a certain length, regardless if the author signed a contract or not?

            QuestionER As long as I know, Chapters locking apply to the authors who signed a contract.

              QuestionER ohohoh I am so sorry. I accidentally told you another name. They all have almost similar names.
              The actual one is love at first gaze
              It has only 108 chapters and in 107 chapters authors thoughts the author has mentioned that their novels will be free and all. You can check it out. Sorry again

              QuestionER You can always sign a contract and not lock chapters, if you want to (since contract does give benefit of exposure). For example, I do plan on locking my chapters in the future, but my current novel is at 252 chapters and it's not locked or anything. I have heard of another author who signed a contract and didn't lock chapters either. Locking chapters is entirely under the author's discretion.

              Of course there are authors who don't sign a contract because they don't want WN to own it. Once you sign the contract, you can't monetize your novel in any other way.
              In my case, I rejected my contract offer early on. I'm up to 122 chapters and still leaving it free. Though I have literally zero exposure, I'm close to 500 collections.
              I do put a disclaimer that the novel is completely free on the latest chapter I post because scrapper bots will copy that part too when the novel chapters are pirated. Best way I could think of to keep pirates from profiting off my work.

              QuestionER tbh, I prefer getting my original reads from amazon, preferably the audiobook variant.

              I think you will have a bigger audience without the pay wall, but probably earn less than if you did sight on...

                Announcing you would never go contracted won't do anything for your readerbase. Readers care very little for authors thoughts. They just want to read.

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