Webnovel.Forum

checkm8

checkm8 Basically, authors can only expect up to 15% maximum in royalties from translations. Do you really think it is a fair deal to authors?
Sure this sounds like a great argument. Until you realize that authors with most major publishers (AKA copyright owners) usually only receive between 5-15% royalties from translations. This is completely in line with standard publishing rates and even on the high side).

Obviously you don't understand the Chinese webnovel indusrty which we are currently talking about. Half-half is the usual condition. Half of the 30% is 15%. Again, we are only talking about Chinese web novels in this case.

We will directly split the revenues equally among authors, translators and us.
You aren't giving translators anything. In fact, you are costing them financially. As it stands now, you give translators no revenue from premium. Plus what a loaded word "directly", it's a mostly empty word.

I said WE WILL. You were saying WE ARE NOT. Both are correct and pointless. I never said we have shared already.

Plus isn't that what WW is doing now? Directly sharing revenue between relevant parties(TL,Pubs,AU).

Well, I don't know whether they are sharing or not at the moment. I bet you don't have any evidence to prove it either, except what they were SAYING. Have you seen the transaction history of their company account? We have.

We don't believe that making a fool of authors or translators would work in the long run.
Aren't you making a fool of translators by removing their major source of revenue? In essence, marginalizing their hard work.

I won't comment anything about other translators who work for other sites. However, the agreement between us and QI translators is that they are never allowed to post our content anywhere else. We gave them a chance to earn more, it doesn't mean that it is their revenue. Actually it was our revenue which we gave them a chance to earn by using Patreon out of good will. Furthermore, we didn't even take a cent of the revenue for almost a year.

We can't comment about authors who work for other platforms, but we—Webnovel or Qidian—won't do such things to any of our authors.
Once again, it appears you care nothing about translators and completely seem to ignore them.

There is totally no logic in your comments. For this paragraph, there is not even a word about TRANSLATOR. Why did you quote this part? I said we care about authors but you were saying we don't care about translators. Excuse me...?

Best of luck to you and all authors whose titles have been abused by the monetization practices of WW.
Abused? By creating a viable process in which profits are shared between translators, publishers, and authors? A process that respects translators and author copyrights equally. What's wrong with that?

Monetizing unlicensed translations is abuse. Not even abuse, it is illegal.

KurazyTolanzuraytor You should but obviously you didn't manage it well. It really doesn't seem like you wish end well depends on all your previous comments in this thread. Feel free to correct me and break down all my points.

Oh, I have to admit that sharing the glossary is a professional action.

evilFart The updates might slow down for a couple of weeks. We will try our best to boost it up asap.

WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL
Ask and you shall receive.

I'm not going to talk about that professionalism stuff about those replies since we obviously have different views to the matter.

Thirdly, all the details were laid out in your initial agreement, nothing was hidden or violated from our side. In addition, the advanced chapters (Patreon) were bonus money for all translators who work for QI until the particular work joins the Premium program. This is not a new rule that you were never informed initially. All QI TLs know this rule clearly from the very beginning. Don't forget that you agreed to that initially.
Last but not least, don't forget we did not get a single cent from "your advanced chapters" from Patreon until we released Premium and enforced not having advanced chapters on another platform. You had received almost a year's worth of bonus money, which you shared nothing with either of us - the copyrght owner, or the author. Premium is the system that allows authors, translators and us to benefit together.

I joined both the Patreon comments to make it easy to reply to.
Yes, we were told it was temporary until advanced chapters were brought in-house, but can you honestly call a cut of release rate advanced chapters
Now lets talk about the circumstances of this goodwill.
- At that time, most good TLs were asking for a raise because we found out trash TLs like Noodletown were being paid more than us for trash.
- Instead of giving us a pay rise, Patreon was given instead. Now, please don't tell me that was goodwill and not a method to move risk to TLs while reaping other benefits and not increasing your budget.
What benefits?
- Motivation to TLs to translate more, carry out events, and make their own novels successful.
- Increase in speed and quality because TLs had a source of income that depended on their speed and quality, and this directly contributed to making the site more successful while creating the fanbase of those novels which you can use later on with the current premium system.

Fourthly, translators need money, and looking for better offers is 100% okay and understandable. You are always free to quit. However, in a professional setting, I believe you should have informed us earlier, like 7 days in advance. Oh, if you check the contract, you will see a clause that requires the translator to provide 30 days notice if the translator decides to quit, and you initially agreed to this too. Unfortunately, in your case, you did not even give us an entire day to prepare. I would say this is rather unprofessional. Despite such acts, we still wished you good luck in our personal chats, right? None of us blamed you or said anything nasty. I'm really disappointed in what you posted in this thread.

I honestly don't see anything that threw as much mud on you as your post did to me.
Besides that, i left you with almost 50 chapters which can almost cover a month, and I asked Yuren if he needed anything from me, meaning I would have been happy to do a further 20 chapters to get it over the month.
You're also ignoring the fact I've done 880 chapters in a single year which by the contract's minimum equals to doing over 3.5 years of work. So, i believe my notice is adequate, but you're welcome to have a differing opinion.

Unfortunately you did not have the patience to wait another few more weeks.We can't comment about authors who work for other platforms, but we—Webnovel or Qidian—won't do such things to any of our authors. We will directly split the revenues equally among authors, translators and us. We admit that we need profits but we would not hurt our translators or authors. We don't believe that making a fool of authors or translators would work in the long run.
According to what you and CK have said previously, I have to wait another 2-3 months. :)
Let's break this down further.
SS was launched in February. Meaning you would have started coding it a few months before hand.
Another 2-3 months from now would be June or July.
So, you knew you were doing this way ahead but failed to implement a simple system to track the usage of SS and make a contract for over half a year?
If lawyers and web devs took half a year to do such simple things, they would be out of business by now.
I don't see how any of this supports and I quote "We can't comment about authors who work for other platforms, but we—Webnovel or Qidian—won't do such things to any of our authors. We will directly split the revenues equally among authors, translators and us. We admit that we need profits but we would not hurt our translators or authors. We don't believe that making a fool of authors or translators would work in the long run."

KurazyTolanzuraytor Hey Josh, I'm gade you replied with all your concerns. Let's talk about them one by one.

According to your comments, you admitted that you agreed with the deal that Patreon advanced chapters will be taken down when your book enters the Premium Program. It means we didn't lie, or hide anything from you.

In your Patreon, there were many advanced chapters available for purchase. The chapters on Webnovel.com (who owns the rights on both original titles and translations) remained far behind. If those chapters could not be defined as "advanced chapters", what else are?

Based on the agreement that we signed, you agreed with what we offered at that time, right? It means you accepted that offer; and there was no coercion at all. In that case, whatever we offered to others, it doesn't really matter with your deal. You agreed to a flat rate and later, you are complaining about it one year later. That is what is unprofessional.

Again, as I mentioned in my previous comments, you are always free to quit if you wish to. You didn't do so until we required you to take down your Patreon advanced chapters. I can only simply assume that you wanted money more than any other matter. To be honest, it's no problem at all, pursuing better conditions can never be wrong. My concern is that you should inform us earlier, at least earlier than 1 day. It doesn't really matter with how many chapters you have in stock because all the chapters in stock have been paid. There is nothing about stockpiles in our agreement, am I right? The clause requires translators to provide 30 days notice. If you really wished to end well, you could have easily let us know in advance, and post a decent announcement to all readers, but not something in this thread.

Now, let's talk about the "good will". If tens of thousands of dollars that you earned (remember we didn't get even a cent of it, while still paying a flat rate for each of those chapters at the same time) over the past year could not be called "good will", then what is?

If you doubted our goodwill, why didn't you refuse our deal prior to us taking down all advanced chapters on Patreon after the in-house system was set up?

Again, wanting more money is never a bad choice but you have to do so in decent ways, moving forward. Unfortunately, you chose the worst one, lamenting about your previous partner who paid you for all your works and gave you a chance to earn tens of thousand of dollars.

My last suggestion, do respect the agreement and laws that you signed. Be a gentleman.

Abysswalker Totally agree. That's why we talked to all our translators when the Premium system was being introduced. We promised all of them that they can convert their contract from flat rate to revenue sharing in the very beginning. The selection will be always on their hand. The problem is hard because there is an entire internal auditing system, revenue sharing calculation system, contract changing since there are so many internal matters which are hard to describe to the public. I believe many of you know the pain of a company when it's getting large, especially when it was listed about half a year ago.

WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL We understand, it's the bitter ex-girlfriend mentality.

Don't forget every other translator or prospective translator will see your argumentative and how bitter you seem to be. It's not a good look.