Webnovel.Forum

Authors work hard for their words and inspiration. The less they are paid, the less they work as authors. They have to lean on other jobs for support. Thus, the "pay wall" is a necessary evil. Most people who read webnovels don't want to spend a dime. They want the content, but no involvement with their pocketbook. Though I respect a minimalistic approach to spending, there are obvious RL reasons why supporting authors economically is not only important but necessary.

Authors don't live off well wishes and "Your novel rocks" statements from anonymous individuals over the WEB. They live just like the rest of us. They need money. Donate. Patreon. Do something more meaningful than a pat on the back. And remember, 1 donation doesn't mean that you're entitled to everything else they provide. It's not a 1 time deposit for everything the author produces. Recurring donations = recurring content.

Hmmm... I don't know how should I say it. But u know, as author I, myself need money for living. U couldn't expect someone give u free stuff all times without give something back right? Even if we write or translate something as hobby, we still need support for that. U couldn't tell our dear translator and author work and make something all the time for free without giving compensation. Someone need to live and eat!

So... It's not always bad thing about some donations or something like payment. It's necessary if u want our dear translator, author and staff maintenance their site.

At last they profits u with something else.

Unless u want them to live without got the payment as compensation of their times, work hard to gave us stories and die without anything!

Oke, u don't want to pay then don't blame them for not give u any new chapter as soon as possible cuz they need to work other things for live and get some money so they wonna die and still healthy for write something.

Some of them write for life!
We need to live and eat! So we can do our job well.

But, it's not like they didn't gave u some free stuff right? U could still read any without really pay. Yeaahhh even u still need to wait for that. But at last it fair...

Read free okay, but wait for sometimes
Read, support and help our dear author and translator with donated or payment, u can enjoy the new chapter quickly.

On a serious note 20 cents or $.20, however you want to put it, is pretty friggin expensive. LoHP-Library of Heaven's Path- would be $12 a month and that's just for one book, it may actually be even more expensive because I'm using the 10ss per chapter factor, yet I've never seen it go below 11ss. Sure you could use your free ss to pay for that one book, but then what happens when you want to read the other popular books in your library? You have 2 choices at that point; pay for more ss, or hold off on them. Personally, I'd rather not spend god knows how much to stay up to date on all the books in my library.

Kaighn
Although I doubt the validity of this claim, LHP's page claims 15 chapters a week, and an year has a little over 52 weeks. Given 12 ss per chapter (The reason I gave 10 earlier is because there are novels charging around 6-8 per chapter, bringing down the overall average. LHP charges above average, so 12), and 2 cents per ss, disregarding the free spirit stones, we get:
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.
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Drumroll please.
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Just over $187.2 an year, or $15.6 a month, 3.6 dollars weekly, and over 50 cents daily.
Just for one novel.
On the plus side, we get around 20 spirit stones daily (check-in is 9-10 on average, 5 for energy and 5 for power), so at the same rate of 2 cents per stone, that's 40 cents.
Thus, if you got lucky draws, watched ads and checked in regularly, you could follow one premium novel for free.
Any more and you either have to use multiple accounts, recommend and login as fake accounts (Each account is worth over 200 ss, 4 dollars for spending a couple minutes filling out a form on Gmail), or paying large amounts of money.

I am not going to post links to outside webpages, thus I'll mention that there are extremely good webnovels/webserials, written in English, that are amazing.

My first example: Worm. Google it. Millions of words. Best super-hero, super-heroine webnovel I have ever read.

These are very affordable rates for those who enjoy reading web novels which I assume that's most of us except for sporadic trolls.

If the math is correct at $0.0198 per stone based on the 50 stones for $0.99 rate, you will pay ~$356.4 for 1500 chapters given a chapter cost 12 spirit stones.

info: One chapter is 1965 words ─ rough estimates, give or take; 1965 words x 1500 chapters = 2,947,500 words

So $356.4 spent on web novels on Qidian equates to buying 38 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone books at $8.86 each (Amazon's price for paperback). You will pay $336.68 for thirty-eight $8.86 books.

info: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is 76,944 words x 38 books = 2,923,872 words

Is it still worth it? Kind of.

Now consider that Qidian authors only get a fraction of that money to support their living conditions? I say "living conditions" because these authors sometimes don't make enough to live in luxury much less help their family. They're not JK Rowling, but they no doubt deserve as much for the entertainment they bring me.

You don't get FREE chapters from print novels like Harry Potter, but you sure do with Web Novels at Qidian. That's FREE as in Free Samples at Costco.

Here's a quick question:

Would you pay five bucks for a cup of coffee? What about to eat out? Or for some sweets?

Answer:

Yes. Yess. Yesss...

But how come paying to relax and de-stress from reality then becomes unreasonable? Hell, I pay chefs at restaurants to cook for me, tips to waiters, and coins to homeless panhandlers. But sometimes I don't like on Qidian.

On Qidian, if I'm broke and without money which often is the case as I'm struggling, I wait to read the free chapters. I hope that the time I do buy spirit stones, I can support my favorite authors, so they can continue to pump out quality stories without stress. I know stress kills creativity which will kill my chance to disconnect from reality for a bit before I log back into the Matrix.

So...

With that in mind, is it still worth it?

You cant even get that kind of deal at the dollar store. Holy cows!

And the dollar store doesn't even give free samples. Crazy.

Now back to you:

Should I employers pay you for YOUR skills?

PS: To Qidian, please do a better job of supporting your authors, translators, and customers. Everyone deserves to be treated fairly even with slight compromises. Without authors and customers, your platform will significantly suffer unless you're not concern about other sharks in the open sea. For example, many of us are not as loyal to Qidian's brand as we are towards the authors and translators, and if a competitor disrupts this space, we will likely support the better in regards to your treatments stated earlier.