Webnovel.Forum

Tybork Problem with the free chapter a day what does one really going to take 3 years to read a book that’s completely translated also many translators haven’t even bother to work faster after charging you $1 plus per chapter view while claiming they are broke

Honestly if people treat this as an occupation 1-2 a day is a disgrace. Sorry but that productivity this gig is a meat side hussle. Charging these prices is no different than me walking around trying to charge $500 to mow some ones lawn, hoping to find 1 sucker to pay me a day. Rather than doing 10 for a reasonable $50

Especially when they want you to join on patreon as well and paying around $50 just to be able to read a few chapters ahead on unedited mess.

Ive just been introduced to this sort of app. If I'm going to have to pay instead of earning SS, ill just skip this app and find the book somewhere else. The books arent proprietary to here.

GUNNY well, legally, they are proprietary since Qidian holds the publishing rights. But by out pricing the markets they're definitely encouraging pirating.

CJofNJ And hour to translate and edit a chapter? @Millman97 come see this

GUNNY It is.

You are conveniently forgetting that your are paying FOR A THOUSAND chapters. That is about 2 million words. Battle through the heavens had about 3 million words.

Playeone its just encouraging pirating.

Totally agree

Millman97

Ah nice to see some of the editors on here! Definitely appreciate your input.

I’m curious what your thoughts are on the per page pricing.

I think to many who are looking at the whole cost of the novel it’s seems way out of line with market value.

I can’t keep scratching my head as to why Webnovel/Qidan is only using adds / spirit stones on new chapters when the should be monitizing the entire novel (maybe add every 2/3 chapters) stones to unlock set of 5 etc.

It seems like the cost per novel seems to be out of line when looking at normal books , granted some web novels can be much larger.

It just seems the whole economy of book industry of inciting fixed costs in writing / editing etc then profiting on sales and other monitization that has worked well for hundreds of years seemed to have been thrown out the window with little thought.

Perhaps we consumers have been spoiled by cheap amazon prices and Netflix all inclusive pricing so we want those payment models elsewhere in the entertainment world.

Appreciate your work. I’m sure qidan will smooth this out eventually

CJofNJ No, Webnovel is charging us eight times (approximately) more than what the readers on Qidian are charged.

Everyone always wants to use Harry Potter. When Harry Potter first came out (If I remember correctly) the first book was around $16 + tax, was basically $20 after all was said and done. The second and third were the same price and it got more expensive for the fourth through seventh up to $30. Dont quote those exact numbers, but we will use $20 USD for the sake of the debate.

First Book - 76,944 words
Second Book - 85,141 words
Third Book - 107,253 words
Fourth Book - 190, 637 words
Fifth Book - 257, 045 words
Sixth Book - 168,923 words
Seventh Book - 198,227 words
Grand Total = 1,084,170 words, $20 x 7 = $140.

Now if Harry Potter has 1 million words for all their books at a price of $140 at release can someone tell me what x3 that amount would be for a story like BTTH that has 3 million?

Not a math teacher but it looks like if you tripled 1 million to reach the same amount of words the price would need to be tripled as well and that looks to be $420 for an equal amount of words. Let's say we don't be reasonable and use the release prices of the books. I can pick up the entire E-Book set of the books for $56 + Tax. So $60, let's do the same math. 1 million words x3 to equal BTTH. $60 x 3 = $180.

Twilight I can pick up for $40 for the E-Books. Word Count of all books 591,434. 600k goes into 3 Million 5 times. 5 x $40 = $200.

The prices really aren't that far apart, sure the translated books cost a bit more but there are more people to pay too. Had you used the original pricing of these books they blow the cost comparison right out of the water. And even though some of these books may be complete in China they might as well be a new release for the rest of us.

Gamblejay

Pricing on word count is just to iffy and that’s why no professional books are.

If one wanted to argue word count hell I’d throw game of thrones into the mix at 300-400k a piece for $8 and these are professionally edited by the industry best and story quality that it desired 5 seasons on hbo. Granted library of heaven is one of the best I’ve read edited but others are mediocre at best (also translated). That and given the original story the publisher values at less than 1 cent a page.

Normal economics would take best sellers in the Chinese market and then they would invest in a translation and sell them in the US. He’ll qidan would even sell them to amazon, Barnes nobles and other ebook vendors. Now however they are trying to profit by keeping everything in house and raising the price several times over. Imagine a year from now what the library of heavens total readership will cumulative be, it will dwarf in comparison to the upfront costs they are shelling out to convert it to English.

I don't care about prices but at least 50% of this money must go to the original author.

Gamblejay thanks for the eye opener fellow immortal

CJofNJ It's cheaper per month than Patreon, so I think it's definitely better for paying readers. For free readers, they can still keep reading one or two premium novels with free stones, so as long as they're patient, I don't think they have a lot to justifiably complain about. (It's worth noting that translators and editors are like regular readers for any novels we don't work on; we still have to pay.)

Playeone Personally, I think people need to learn moderation. Reading 50 novels daily leaves little time for anything else. Keeping up with a few premium novels and letting the rest stockpile free chapters to read at a later date is easily affordable. It also leaves time for people to do other things than just read all day. :sweat_smile:

Millman97 Keeping up with a few premium novels and letting the rest stockpile free chapters to read at a later date is easily affordable

this is what most of them don't understand. I think that when they see the premium chapters that are locked, they think they are losing out so they throw a tantrum.

CJofNJ The problem is you are applying Western views to the matter. Qidian isn't a Western company and in China their books are based on word count. The actual worth of a book is subjective I'd say based on their standards the Song of Ice and Fire is a damn good deal then. I still find the entire series both books and TV absolute crap and wouldn't pay a dime for them while I would have no problem throwing money at IRAS every month. Again, subjective.

Normal economics? Authors for Qidian can do extremely well just on their own. I think the top author makes like 70k+ in Royalties a Month? When they are making that kind of money with their system for what reason do they have to follow the western path of finding a Publication company to sell your book to when even Westerners don't want to go through a Publisher anymore? And Amazon? You get a 10 times better deal with Qidian far as payment and royalties go not to mention promotion. So them keeping things in-house, their pricing seems to be doing quite well for them.

I mean me personally if it works, don't fix it.

Im not sure in the future, but average novel is still more expensive than qidian ss price, plus you can still get free SS eveeyday

My experience gives me around 25ss per day, thats a 5.000 words free of charge, just spending times