Yakumo It's because there are some people who can't or won't pay and so the minority (I assume) has to make up the difference. It's not a bad system since there are a lot of free releases for those that can't pay. Again there are some disadvantages which I wish would be addressed (the free chapter release not affecting paid subscribers being the main one).

Making it so more people can afford to help would also be helpful but there is a middle-ground somewhere which I personally think would be met by letting paid subscribers still receive the free releases (allowing small chapter purchases for those who can't buy all Premium chapters but still want to support the novel). While also rewarding the support with a chapter.

    Yakumo Japan takes part in the fixed book price agreement
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_book_price_agreement
    China is basically not going to introduce something like this under communist rule.
    Speaking about communism a chinese politician said this once:
    "The Marxist in China today is not a stubborn, dogmatic, and outdated 19th-century old man, but a dynamic, pro-change, young thinker. We have a flexible approach."
    Do you notice something. ;)

        Vudis As I understood it, this law/agreement is there to prevent dumping by big book stores, which is realized by a fixed price set by the publisher and every store has to accept that price. So this law/agreement has nothing to do with price by word count.

            Yakumo yupp 12 spirit stones for one chap is too big of a ripoff

                What would happen if I were to give you a chapter(x) and you give me another(x+1).
                Mutual Benefit?

                  Woolose lol, your words and math don't add up! The words say that you exchanged chapters one for one, the math says you kept your original chapter and gained another.

                  Not sure what you are trying to get across.

                      APassingMe He might be saying that if you buy a chapter and other guy the chapter after that one, you can exchange(copypaste?). After all you can buy whatever chapter.

                        13 stones for one chapter hahahahahahahahaha

                          #i also agree to this whahahahahahahahahah

                            Yakumo Yea exactly, word count doesnt matter. My comment was basically about why japanese light novels are in the same price range as normal books and why chinese novels arent.
                            As for wordcount, since these chinese webnovels are stupidly long they could be split into multiple volumes to sell them I suppose. But Im not too knowledgable about selling books, especially not in regards to webnovels.
                            Since there isnt a comparable system for webnovels in the west Qidian will have to come up with some way to sell their books here.

                                All these complaints about being poor. Can’t get a job? Then wait.

                                  Cless Yet you found the time to reply to my comment. Was it because there was nothing wrong with my statement?

                                      Vudis the price of a single book has nothing to do with this law... I could sell a 10 pages short book for 100$. As long as every store sells this book for 100$ and not less, it's according to law (Btw, the law differs from country to country, in Germany ebooks are also part of it). There are many books which are more expensive than others, especially scientific books, since they are based on alot of research.
                                      So it's totally up to the publishers to set the price and most are still in the same price range of similar products (differs by category, supply & demand and so on), but seems like QI wants to establish an own price standard for chinese novels. But if you consider their length, they are not much different from japanese light novels with their dozens of volumes long stories. So it wouldn't be wrong to compare their prices and the japanese prices are in line with normal novals (by word count) whereas the chinese are still more expensive despite their lower story (repetitions) & translation quality.
                                      I don't even ask for physical novels, but that their premium chapter price is cheaper or at least similar to normal ebook novels if you break the price down by word count

                                        Leechers complain more than anyone. Go get a job and buy some stones. Reading is a habit, better spend some bucks on reading than alcohol and cigarettes.

                                        Cless yeah, just ignore him. If you come with facts he will ignore them and answer with his same standard posts. In his opinion everything is solved by gettong a job. He also thinks this premium system is the same as patreon...poor soul
                                        Don't wanna wait? get a job
                                        Don't have a girlfriend? get a job
                                        Don't like your job? get a job
                                        incurably sick? get a job

                                          Web Novel Novel Ask