I talked today with my friend, he is an online writer (as a hobby), translator (to his native language) and old reader who introduced me to the baka-tsuki and the first translation of LMS very, very long time ago. He knows how hard to earn money with writing and translating, but we couldn't find an answer how RWX (from wuxiaworld) is able to buy translating license from Chinese and Korean publishers and to pay a good salary for translating/editing/etc? And why Qidian can't follow his business model?
It's quite simple - place some adequate amount of ads, make a reasonable premium system and sell completed books.

I find it quite interesting how most people miss the point.

Free/Non-paying Readers - Complaining Webnovel restricting free passes limiting what they can read without resorting to pirate sites one google search away.

Authors - Complaining that people refusing to pay means they get no income.

This thread seems filled with authors attacking Free/Non-paying readers and vice versa. However the reality is that authors signed a contract with Qidian/Webnovel and if they're unhappy with income then issue lies with Qidian/Webnovel who has either taken too big of a cut or they have a bad business model. On the other hand as far as Free/Non-paying readers go if Webnovel restricts free passes etc then you can simply vote with your feet and follow novels from different sites you can easily find on https://www.novelupdates.com/.

Either way this change doesn't affect me much. I remember when Webnovel still went by the name Qidian International that they promised no pay walls etc. With the gradual introduction of adwalls, then premium, then privilege most goodwill was gradually eroded into nothing. I used to read a few novels that had been poached from other sites but then they more or less all got dropped and while at the time I wasn't too happy in hindsight I think it's not too bad as it's meant I can completely leave the Webnovel ecosystem without any regrets.

    AnnoyingADs Yeah, I remember what happened at NU forum and Reddit at that time, and CKTalon's words:
    "In the event, Qidian sets up a paywall, they will be betraying me as well, and make me seem like a fool here. When that happens, I'll definitely have to apologize for me being stupid and 'signing a contract with the devil'."
    πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

      MotivatedSloth i'm the type of person who can imagine all kinds of different scenarios and get lost in them, but can't seem to write or draw them into paper. I'm also the type to not be motivated to do anything unless i already believe i can succeed in something.

      Since i can't put thoughts into paper, i subconsciously tell myself "forget about it" and i stop thinking about it. I'm more of a reader than a writer anyway. Sorry about that.

        Tomoyuki no problem. I do think if you want to pirate something then you should at least not be so blatant about it. Pirating sucks but sometimes you can't help but go and sail the seas. I'm of the opinion though that even if you pirated something, if you really loved what you took then pay for it legally to support that person, so i'll only criticise that guy for being so rude at saying their gonna pirate.

          AnnoyingADs yeah i remember those times. I was not against watching an ad as long as i can read but times have changed. Whenever there are new changes, sometimes i only found it when i stumble about it since WN didn't even make it clear they made a change, like changing daily all-purpose fastpass log-ins for genre-specific ones. And why DID WN decide to change the weekly login reward to exp anyway? Sigh.

            AbsoluteReader001 Well my viewpoint is that Webnovel can do whatever they want with their site. Having said that making unilateral changes without even telling anyone or explaining why they have done it isn't good business as it makes people feel messed around. This poor communication is systematic across Webnovel and I think it does seriously harm them.

            Generally I find that if there is bad news I'm quite happy to accept it as long as they're upfront about it. For example if they say a novel has been dropped cause they're losing money on it I can accept it even if I'm not thrilled. However what we find instead is that they simply stop updating and don't tell anyone anything leaving bemused readers to guess it's probably been dropped. The problem is who in their right mind would spend money on a novel that could be dropped without notice nor explanation the very next day.

            It's the same with changes to fastpass etc where they assume it will be unpopular so they just change it quietly and hope no one will notice. Problem is that it firstly makes Webnovel look untrustworthy and secondly it seems to imply that they think people won't be interested in their offering if they knew all the facts so they need to keep it hidden. Each individual incident isn't really a deal breaker but when I add them all together if you were to ask me if I trust Webnovel answer would be a decisive NO and that's not what any company wants when trying to prise open people's wallets...

              AnnoyingADs Webnovel is unstable
              Why pay for cheap trash like webnovel when they'll just thank you for your patronage by flipping you off.

                Hello Readers! I know you all are unhappy about the new system of Genre FP, please write about your problems into the link! Click on the below link here:

                WN App service Uptill 6pm GMT+8

                REMEMBER, It will be open from 6am - 6pm GMT+08 China Time, only Monday to Friday.

                OR you may send email at webnovel service at service@webnovel.com stating your problems you are facing here, if the above link doesn't work. But that's a ONLINE SERVICE, so it is more effective.

                i HOPE THIS HELPS YOU.

                Be polite to them !!

                  imagineTishaD I don't understand, how's the customer service supposed to help with dissatisfaction against company policy changes? They don't have any control here.

                  And if the company cared about feedback, there's plenty on the forum, so I doubt telling customer service would make any difference. In fact it may cause long queues or heavy traffic and render the CS useless.

                  MotivatedSloth Do you think the authors and editors are spending hours upon hours to produce the novels that you love to read... just because its a hobby of ours

                  Okay I'm probably the odd one out and I do have the upload rate of a coma patient but yeah I write for hobby but yeah a lot of people write because it's their only way to make money and they love to write for free but they need money to actually eat.

                    I pay on a monthly bases and enjoyed getting fast passes for the books I want to read . The membership is more than the cost of a paper back novel . I also write on here and enjoy talking to my readers regardless if they pay or not. I think the system they had before was much better than this new one. I don’t like most of what they have recommended for me to read with those fp. So my library is filled with books I will never give another glance. It is a waste of those authors talent to have their stories not being read because someone has unusable fp.

                    AnnoyingADs Authors - Complaining that people refusing to pay means they get no income.

                    I don't care if people don't pay or I don't get income at all. I get zero income anyway. What annoys me is that people who admit to not paying are making demands of me, as if they are entitled to even though they are reading my stuff for free. And that they even resort to threats, "if you don't give me free chapters, I'll plagiarize/pirate your work."

                    If you want to pirate my work elsewhere, I won't say anything. But at least have the decency not to say that to my face and use that to threaten me. Why am I obligated to listen to your demands anyway when you're not even giving me a single cent?

                      Tomoyuki I would agree that people who don't pay don't have the right to demand anything. If someone pays for something and they're not happy with it you can in theory ask for a refund but if you have paid $0 then that can easily be refunded. I would also like to add that threatening authors is likely to be counterproductive as I imagine that making unreasonable demands is only likely to make an author drop a novel.

                      Although my main point is that quite a lot of the problems are actually due to the platform (Webnovel) rather than authors or readers. For example authors don't have much control over what chapters are freely available with Webnovel in some cases forcing premium/privilege upon them. So readers blaming authors is definitely misplaced as it's entirely Webnovel that determines how platform operates and as they keep quiet authors are made out as scapegoats. On the other hand as far as financials go Webnovel is very opaque with limited details where exact breakdown is unclear with it structured so that Webnovel always makes a profit while authors are left to fend for themselves. I can imagine that if an author writes a relatively successful novel that does well in rankings and then at the end of the month Webnovel says "You got a lot of readers but as they all used free passes you'll get practically nothing" it must be really frustrating for an author and it's easy to blame said readers who used free passes.

                      To me a lot of the problems arising are due to the business model used by Webnovel. For example let's say you have an average reader income of $100000 per month. Let's then assume that 28% goes to the authors (30% app store cut, then 50% to author minus mystery expenses) that's $28000 per month for every author. Let's assume you have 100 authors and then it works out at $280 per month average per author. However if you have 1000 authors then it works out at $28 per month average. I'm aware that Webnovel has spent a lot of effort attracting authors from Wattpad but I don't think they've tried to attract new users.

                      So in conclusion I think we've got a stagnant user base with an ever increasing pool of authors competing to attract readers and thus getting an ever lower % market share thus income. Webnovel is happy either way as their income doesn't change if 10 authors make $100000 or 100000 authors each make $10. However authors are likely to struggle in the later scenario that is what we're heading towards.

                        AnnoyingADs For example authors don't have much control over what chapters are freely available with Webnovel in some cases forcing premium/privilege upon them.

                        This isn't actually true, at least not in my experience. Authors have every right to decide premium or privileges. Mistakes happen and Webnovel is pretty rigid (so once a chapter is locked as premium, you can't unlock it because apparently it's unfair to readers who have already paid for it), but I can assure you that Webnovel does not force premium or privilege upon authors. It's entirely optional, authors decide which chapters they want to go premium, and they can opt out of privilege if they don't like it - also, we don't have to do privilege if we don't want to.

                        I have not heard of any author being forced to go premium or privilege. Most of the time, the content editors probably even forget my stories exist until I consult them on something.

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