So maybe some of you haven't noticed, but when reaching the end of the last chapter, there's a message indicating that the next chapter hasn't been released yet. It used to be "to be continued" and now it looks like they changed it to "new chapter is coming soon".

I want to know what you guys think it's better and why.

Personally, I like "to be continued" better. If they could define how long soon is, then I would appreciate that more, but it just makes me really sad seeing that at the end of "village girl as family head: picked up a general for farming" where I know soon is probably about a month away.

Long story short, I want them to:
A ) change it back to "to be continued" or
B ) actually define how soon "soon" is (like new chapter is coming today/tomorrow/in 4 hours/next year/when translator recovers/after author releases next chapter/when new translator is found/at translator discretion)

"To be continued" likely sounds too much like the story itself is over, and it will "be continued" in another story. "New chapter coming soon" is very straightforward in that there is another chapter that hasn't been released yet, and the story itself isn't finished.

Apparently some of the newer readers have absolutely no experience with webnovels whatsoever. This is why you can check out the first chapters of a few of them here and see "this is a serial novel that updates" blah blah; people were apparently getting confused and thought the story was finished instead of being consistently updated....

    If you were really reading the novel then it will be obvious if its over or will be continued to another book and most of the time the translators leave notes at the end like thanks for reading etc,

    But for the "to be continued" it represents what happening most of the time(the cliff) and has no given time frame in release

    But for me "soon" implies a shorter time. For example if a movie says ending says coming soon then will mean within 2 years but for to be continued it can last longer than a decade.

    ActiasLuna hmm... I get your point. How significant is the issue though?

    Would phrasing it as "Stay tuned for the next chapter" be better or worse?
    How about adding release rate statistics after the message?

    I just really don't like seeing the word soon since it just feels like a lie when applied to novels that update multiple times a day as well as novels that update no more than once a month.

      To be continued is like stating the obvious.

        KoraL Significant enough for translators to be instructed to put that message in the first few chapters. I was skeptical and find it pretty ridiculous, myself, but I've also heard some stories have comments saying things like "it's a shame the story ended". It also seems like very few people read the translator thoughts to even see the "this is a serial novel blah blah" stuff, so it's likely doubling down to ensure as little confusion as possible.

        "Stay tuned for the next chapter" would probably work, yes, but it'd probably have fewer people checking update times to see how soon "soon" actually is.

        I also was excited at first about the "New chapter coming soon" until I took a look at Martial Arts Master, and noticed it also had the same statement :(

        Soon is an arbitrary term, could mean this week, or this year :( Hell, or even this decade.

        It makes sense that there might be confusion by new readers. But "New Chapter Coming Soon" will just become a joke among the rest of us.

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