WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL All fan transaltors can apply for the dropped project. We can share 30%. (cuz need to share the same.amount to original author)

So 30% to Fan translator
30% to Author (same amount you mentioned)
40% to Site?

30% is not that great but it is better than nothing for a fan translator who want to support the author.

what about duration of revenue sharing? 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?

is the revenue sharing only for coin purchase? The contract should be clear to prevent dispute if the novel generate revenues from movies/games/toys/tv shows / ebooks on Amazon / print books etc...in the future. You never know. A dropped novel might catch fire one day.

More details from Webnovel Official would be appreciated. This news is a good thing for readers and fan translators. I'm guessing the message will spread among the translation and reader community in the near future.

      @WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL Can you please make this a notification or something? If we are willing to bring in Fan Translators to translate the dropped novels, it would be a wonderful idea. The prime reason readers are getting angry these days is due to the large number of translated works being dropped all of a sudden.

      These fan translators will be able to resume the dropped work and satisfy the readers. If a notification (APP push notification) arrived as the following, it would be perfect:

      Calling Fan-Translators~!!!
      Feeling down that your favourite work has been dropped due to earning issues?
      Fear not, Webnovel is also accepting Fan Translators to continue dropped projects.

      The pay will be royalty basis, i.e. 30% of the income generated from the chapters translated.
      Apply for the position by passing a basic test here: [Insert Test Link]. Once approved, you can begin working on it.

      If you have further interest, you can apply to become a full-fledged translator~

        ssound5rs Obviously it isn't new and it isn't just this type of industry that does it. Like even the NFL stops there games from broadcasting if enough tickets don't get sold(even though they make a lot of money in the form of advertising on TV anyway). Knowing it happens doesn't make it any better to stop others from enjoying it just because it doesn't make you a profit, even more so if there were fan translators before and they cancelled the fan translation when they liscensed it, like I understand stopping fan translations if you obtain the license, but you shouldn't stop them from continuing/finishing what they started if you can't finish what they started.

            ssound5rs Obviously it isn't new and it isn't just this type of industry that does it. Like even the NFL stops there games from broadcasting if enough tickets don't get sold(even though they make a lot of money in the form of advertising on TV anyway). Knowing it happens doesn't make it any better to stop others from enjoying it just because it doesn't make you a profit, even more so if there were fan translators before and they cancelled the fan translation when they liscensed it, like I understand stopping fan translations if you obtain the license, but you shouldn't stop them from continuing/finishing what they started if you can't finish what they started.

                ssound5rs Obviously it isn't new and it isn't just this type of industry that does it. Like even the NFL stops there games from broadcasting if enough tickets don't get sold(even though they make a lot of money in the form of advertising on TV anyway). Knowing it happens doesn't make it any better to stop others from enjoying it just because it doesn't make you a profit, even more so if there were fan translators before and they cancelled the fan translation when they liscensed it, like I understand stopping fan translations if you obtain the license, but you shouldn't stop them from continuing/finishing what they started if you can't finish what they started.

                    Has this news spread to other places?

                    Do you think that some fan translators would be interested in this?

                      FunnyBuns

                      If fan translators want to translate a dropped licensed novel and do it legally, they can.

                      Just email the licensed company and offer to translate it for free and that licensed company would bend over backward to accommodate that fan translator.

                      How many fan translators actually did that? NONE or very close to NONE.

                      But most translators nowadays are not fan translators who do it for free. It's sad but most translators nowadays are for-profit-translators.

                      Even this 30% revenue sharing offer from Webnovel, I hope that some fan translators will take up this offer. It would be great for readers and the authors.

                          ssound5rs Just email the licensed company and offer to translate it for free and that licensed company would bend over backward to accommodate that fan translator.

                          I doubt that very strongly. The company needs to spend the time (and therefore money) to validate that this is a legitimate translator who will do a good job both in quality and timeliness of their translations. The company is the one that gets the complaints and damage from a bad translator.

                          Otherwise you'll get "translators" who volunteer for a dozen novels, machine translate 50 chapters and put them up, and let the unsuspecting readers pay for however many chapters they read until they give up in disgust at the translation quality.

                          WebNovel has demonstrated that they are willing to work with translators they trust on novels that WebNovel would otherwise abandon. I know CKtalion has kept a couple of novels alive because he/she wanted to finish translating them even though the novels weren't earning enough for WebNovel. But finding trusted fan translators seems very tough these days.

                              CrispyCritter

                              The fan translator would take a translation test to prove that this fan translator can do a decent job. Like all the translators who have applied before.

                              It doesn't take that much time and money to validate that the translator is legitimate. Webnovel just need to read the work and judge the quality. Webnovel has done this hundreds of time. I'm sure they can spare the time and money to vet the fan translator.

                              Like I said before, the fan translator who accept 30% revenue sharing would do this mostly for love and less so for the money. They want to support the author. Whatever money they earn from the 30% cut is just a bonus.

                                  ssound5rs I think you grossly overestimate the supply of competent fan translators who are not already translating as much as they want to.

                                  WebNovel has been making deals with fan translators for years. They took over a good number of fan translation sites, including major ones like Gravity Tales (where I was originally reading.) Some of those translators made deals with WebNovel and some did not. You are not suggesting anything that WebNovel hasn't tried and isn't trying.

                                  I would guess that there is probably an order of magnitude more translations happening now, because of WebNovel, than have ever been existed in the past. There just aren't that many more competent translators available, in part because WebNovel is directly paying so many!

                                      CrispyCritter

                                      I'm not talking about translators who are already working on a novel.

                                      I'm talking about potential (future) fan translators who are out there. They want to give fan translation a try. Maybe this will be their first fan translation.

                                      This allow them to do it legally and also get a 30% revenue share. Also help the author get 30% revenue share and help readers of dropped novels. Some potential / future fan translators out there will be willing. Webnovel just need to spread the words.

                                          There are probably a lot of fan translators who would be willing to pickup dropped novels. But there might be issues so they won't dare to really apply.

                                          I've been reading books translated outside webnovel and their translation rate is not as fast as webnovel, commonly (2-4 chapters a week) because, well, since they are just fan translators (the faster ones do have patreon or ko-fi), they may not have time to translate much everyday.

                                          For short, officially translating is intimidating QAQ. It might be really helpful if there's a separate search for those who wants to be fan translator and telling them updating once a week is okay.

                                          I mean, back then, Superstars of Tomorrow was like 1 chapter a week and INETBAMATTTF was like 7 chapters a week but that update rate is not really common and there's probably a generalization for webnovel that all translations are at least 14 chapters a week.

                                          WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL And what about translating into other languages? Like for example in French? It's the 5th most spoken language in the world (knowing that the first two are English and Mandarin), it's a bit silly not to think about it.

                                              WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL hello ,how can i be a memebership here? if i buy this type of coin pack 24.9usd,how many novels i can read free?
                                              i have to pay for each unlocked book/each chapter? i am not very clearly about your system,could you explain ?thanks

                                                  For comparison, if you write an Original English novel on Webnovel, you get 50% revenue share.

                                                  If you choose to be a fan translator of a dropped project, you get 30% revenue share. Help the authors earn 30% share and help readers of dropped project.

                                                    Web Novel Novel Ask