Webnovel.Forum

Xhaare You can support a normal online author with 5 - 10 dollars a month and get access to more than the privilege gets you on this site. Yet, the privilege here costs 20+ and the coins required to read the chapters AFTER you spend the money on privilege adds up to another 20 over the course of a month.

The terms and cost of privilege are entirely set by each individual author. Some authors even set a price of 1 coin for some levels. It is a mechanism that the author sets up so their loyal fans who want to reward them can do so. The authors get 50% of whatever is paid for privilege; making it cheaper just means the author decides to get less.

The authors also get 50% of the coins spent, after the cost of making financial transactions is deducted. That's 30% that Apple and Google (Google might be less now) take off the top. I object to that percentage much more than WebNovel's!

CrispyCritter This cost is actually the more reasonable one, the issue lies in the multi layered costs before it reaches the authors.

30% is standard on the market, and this is what they charge while allowing people to freely upload and distribute through their platform. Amazon and Apple book store will charge the same for exclusive sold books while allowing you to freely sell your book through them (There is also a data fee on this one, but it’s so minuscule it can be ignored).

My issue on these companies is the monopoly they essentially hold. For instance, I read on an iPad. How am I supposed to download and install an app, or game, if not through the Apple store?

Darth_Xiane you mean getting you to pay more money. That's all. They don't care about the book nor the writers.

Whycanti

This should be good. Kindly explain your logic that forcing people to get coins over relying on fast passes hurts books and authors. I would really love to see what twisted self entitled logic prompted your statement.

Whycanti Oh, and somehow readers threatening to run off to pirate websites and demanding for more free stuff care about the book and writers more?

Do I want more fast passes? Absolutely. But I'm not going to pretend to take the higher moral ground and condemn Webnovel for being greedy while loudly threatening to run off to pirate stuff and demand for more free stuff. The irony and hypocrisy are unreal.

Tomoyuki Unfortunately, that's how it is.

People seem the feel they are entitled to free content, or the ability to view a certain amount of free stuff. The entitlement is real, and it's currently all over the forums.

It's sad that we get less than what we used to, and I can understand that people are unhappy with it, but QI are the supplier and it is entirely up to them what they decide to give out for free.

The could definitely do with better PR though ngl.

I read what I want to read, and don't read what I don't want to read. I buy coins to read authors and novels I want to support, and use fast passes to find new things to read, or if a story's quality isn't to the point that I want to spend real money on it, but it has something good going for it.

Making a fast pass book-specific or genre-specific isn't going to make me read things I'm not interested in reading, it'll just make me read fewer new or questionable novels.

So if webnovel's goal was to make people read less, good work!

Xhaare Once again, the price is not astronomical. The fact that you can't into math is not my personal problem, but I will go out of my way to summarize what makes you act as entitled as you do right now.

1st - Webnovel with its chapter subscription system aims for the readers to support the author DURING THE PROCESS of writing. You are not paying to read the finished product, you are paying to get along on the ride.
2nd - Webnovel novel's are usually tens if not several tens of times longer than your usual novel. I don't think you would complain about the fact that a truckload of apples costs more than a small bag of them, so I have no idea what makes you think you can bash on 2kk words long novel being more expensive than 80k words one. (that's 25 times the difference since you already proved to be math-incompatible)
3rd - Priv is completely optional. If you have the money and you want to spend it, then off you go. If you don't have the money and don't want to spend it, then you are free to keep reading at your usual rate.
4th - The prices of each chapter depend on the word count alone, they have nothing to do with author's/editor's wishes
5th - For 5-10 dollars a month you can support a single author? Bitch, I wouldn't need to eat rice and drink tap water if that were to be the case. Most of the readers are free readers, meaning they get to read my stuff almost completely for free thanks to the free initial chapters, then fast passes and then exploiting the system in any way they can find not to spend a single cent to support the novel in the only way that it could prolong its life.
6h - The cost of priv is set by each of the authors by themselves, it's not compulsory. And for those other online authors, I assume you speak about patreon-based ones? Yeah. YOu are completely right. But from what I saw, they rarely do 1ch/day, often limiting themselves to 1ch/week, maybe 2ch/week. Compare it to often 3chaps/day that authors here produce.
7th - Many more? It was tested, it failed, reality proves you wrong.
8th - Don't want to pay coins to webnovel? Sure! YOu can only pay $, but be my guest.
9th - You are supporting the author more than you could by doing anything else when you use coins to read the story. By doing ANYTHING else like reading on another site, using fast passes, waiting for the chapters to become unlocked... You are doing absolutely nothing for that author. YOu are doing absolutely nothing for that novel. You are just a leech that most of the authors treat with scorn at the very least. I wonder how would you feel if you worked your bottom for hours over years, only to have people claim that since they want more free stuff, they will just steal what you wrote and read it for free?
10th - If you don't know something, don't speak about it. This way, you could at least pretend not to be an idiot. The split of raw income with WN is 50-50. Authors get access to a huge pool of readers, a promotion that can give them an audience, platform to publish on in the first place... If you really think that 50/50 split for such good terms, for terms that no other place offers to newbies in the first place, then you are either delusional, ignorant about the market or both of those combined with a huge degree of inborn idiocy.

Darth_Xiane It's not "More money" People who complain about fast passes don't spend money in the first place. If they do, they actually spent almost the same as you would on amazon. My Spirit Cultivation novel cost around 61$ to read but its length is that of 10 amazon novels. (800k words) That would be 6$ for each book which is a normal price for a book. Idk why are you complaining about paying? If you can't afford to buy a laptop, you just don't buy it and no one demands a laptop to be free because you can't afford it. That's such a fucked up logic. If you can't afford then don't read.

Literally, books are products, the same as if you buy an ice cream from the shop. It was produced and displayed on a shelf for people to buy. The shop doesn't give away ice cream for free. Just because books are online doesn't make it a less valuable product.

MotivatedSloth

Well the 4th isn't entirely true, the author does have ultimate control over chapter length. Depends how much description and or filler one wants to throw in there hence why some books range from 1k chapters to huge 2.5k+ monster chapters. If you want your chapters to cost less you include less repetitive descriptions, want to squeeze more out of your readers you describe your mc's flowing black hair and lustrous purple eyes... three or four times in the same chapter. Or remind the readers every couple of actions that he's a special existence unseen beneath the heavens...

Thats honestly the worst thing about this medium, it rewards shameless repeating.

It's hilarious how most of the readers complaining aren't the readers supporting the work/author but those just reading for free.

I'm sure most authors can attest to how rarely their top fans leave comments saying literally anything, I suppose paying readers have less time to comment because they understand how this relationship between them and webnovel works and accept that relationship without stress and unlock the next chapter instead of wailing for free merchandise and threatening to support pirates, much unlike their free reading counterparts who will do so, even though they aren't entitled to anything they're demanding.

At the end of the day, it's paying readers that got webnovel to improve, it's paying readers that brought more beautifully written novels and genius authors. It's paying readers who have a say so, because this is a business for this platform and the source of livelihood for many of the authors writing here.

What you should do as a butthurt entitled free reader is acknowledge that you do not have the finance to support the author and appreciate the fact that Webnovel still allows fastpass, with said fastpass you should unlock a chapter and be grateful to read it for free, you should leave a positive comment rather than declaim high prices. You should support the author with your words of gratitude.
Thank you.

People who pay will pay. People who don't, don't complain.

Darth_Xiane Sorry, but if someone puts 3/4 of his chapter as a filler, then I don't think he/she will have any readers to begin with, free or paid.

MotivatedSloth

True enough :)

Darth_Xiane you wouldn't say the same if you saw the contract they offer. They take more than 50% of the revenue while doing practically nothing and at the same time locking any chance for the authors to earn something without going through them. They demand you give them all rights to your work while offering nothing for them as well.
Make no mistake, they only care about maximizing their profits, the authors don't matter.

Tomoyuki people are willing to pay for content, sure, but there is a limit to how much bullshit they can take. If WN cared about the authors then they would've gave them ways to receive donations directly like royal road, instead they limit any chance if it happening by preventing links and even censoring words like Patreon. If you want to support the author then they demand a piece of the pie and you can rest assured they will take the biggest share.

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Tomoyuki Most problematic thing on this site is lack of real administration. You cannot about stupid things. Delete comments? Delete reviews? Oh, really? It's possible to post another ones and another ones. No limit for reviews or comments.
It's fucking pain in the ass. If site contracting authors doesn't give shit about their own property. What can you do? Sue sites like "Boxnovel", Wuxiaworld.site or other simillar ones. Good luck with that. It's like hydra...
I don't pay for chapters but I don't complain about freaking site stopping giveaways. I mostly complain about quality of service falling with every day. It's painful to watch. They started with many great novels... Now. It's system this system that. Pet show or misunderstanding comedy...
It seems that readers aren't generating enough revenue so they use other ways to survive.
Minimalizing costs, selling releases to their authors or stopping giving away free stuff.
They aren't first doing this... If you want free stuff giveaway your personal stuff to someone... If you like charity then do it yourself. Companies needs to generate profit...