Webnovel.Forum

Whoah!
This is worthless!

1. Are you satisfied with your current income from writing web novels? Your expectations regarding the returns?

I think there is a huge amount of potential in Webnovel :) I think this is a hobby that can easily become a job I can live off of :)

Lol. So he basically said that even as the author of one of the top-ranked stories on webnovel.com he still cant earn enough to live off of it? Or am i missing something? Are his expenses so high, or is the pay so low? Because the way he says webnovel.com has "potential" and is a "hobby" it kinda seems he is not making enough to get by.

If Qidian wanted to advertise writing for them imho they kinda shot their own foot there. If one of the topranked authors cant make enough, how the hell are others supposed to do it?

No Castle of Black Iron MR?

lozlo Huh, so you would basically refine the current system to something more in line with the interests of the readers and push for more transparency regarding the novels quality. Thats actually more viable than the other stuff i read on here.

WigglerGod Yeah, thats what i often read and the reason i was proposing a premium model with variable amounts. People are ready to pay for their entertainment, but they will never be willing to get screwed over for it (dont factcheck that).

lozlo

Ok i guess i didnt consider the long history of haphazardly translated novels on obscure websites. Thats actually how i found and got into light novels in the first place, lol.

Yeah, the more and more i read about Qidians business-practices (if you can call them that) the less i like them.

EA of light novels i suppose...

lozlo Considering the author doesnt get anything when we use free SS to pay him i think this system is kinda ripping the author off. Most seem to be fine with it tho, which is kinda sad tbh.

Regarding splitting the sub-amount per month: I was thinking to about an even split between novels with minimum amounts. Basically, every author gets SOME money, but you can use a slider or just put in % to allocate an author more or less. If authors try to abuse this system by releasing less chapters readers would use their "slots" on other novels and the author gets nothing or a very small amount of money. If the novel sucks same. If your story is awesome and has a stable release people will probably want to reward you for it, making you earn more money and having time to focus on the novel. Its a virtuous cycle, the opposite of the "RELEASE ALL THE TIME AND BEG FOR DEM POWASTONES OR DROP IN RANKING AND FADE TO OBSCURITY"- mode of operation we have right now. Its just not a good enviroment to create a literary work of art is what im saying.

On the other hand my proposal would give more control to the readers while ending the current system of buying chapters which might or might not be filler. If you want more novels to read you can either upgrade your subscription-level or purchase single "slots" which come at a fraction of the price of an upgrade. This way you pay a minimum amount (smallest subscription) towards the authors while still maintaining the flexibility to add more novels at a reasonable price.

I guess you are right, most subscription games i know off have some kind of ingame-cash-shop.
We also have that with gifting the author, except we dont get jack in return...its kinda like a black hole for SS with nothing in return? A few hours or so earlier access to chapters in return or anything at all wouldve been nice...

bachingchung Have you ever thought of some people actually not being on this site for a month or two? To some this IS actually new.

Not to me tho, i just like to take my time to put my opinion about things together.

lozlo Ok, guess we are on the same page regarding quality then. As cynical as this sounds: at some point you just know what to expect of certain authors/stories. On the other hand being forced to pay SS before knowing how good that chapter is is a major reason i am against it. You are buying the cat in the sack basically.

Regarding subscription: I dont know if i understand what you mean regarding the work of splitting the sub-fee. SS are worth like what, some cents each? I dont think it amounts to much more work serverside. Agree on the "subs fail in the long run" argument tho, havent thought of it. But on the other hand i dont know of a sub-model in literature (except magazines and those are not a continuous story). Games are another thing. Subscription on games does not work because the game-model or the graphics or sth. else becomes outdated. That is not a problem with light novels.

Thanks for clarifying the part about the authors and translators tho. Was wondering if authors still get a cut from this site if its only translated...

Qidian is a story in itself i suppose. I think everything that can be said has been said in that regard...

lozlo Whats your proposal on how to handle this? If paying for SS is too much and Subscription is not an option for you, how do you think we should pay the authors?

Hello everyone,

i would really like some feedback on my thoughts regarding some of my favourite novels going premium left and right. Im not plugged into current events so if someone already discussed this in-depth please link me the thread.

So, here it goes:

1. Every novel, its dog and the dogs best friend is going premium.

2. This is not a bad thing in and of itself, authors wanna get paid, right?

3. Great idea, shitty implementation and bad long-term consequences for everyone involved and here is why (imho):

3.1. SS-cost by word count.

This is self-explanatory. You write more, you getto demand more SS for your chapters. Problem is that this method of paying the author actually rewards word-padding and the 4 apocalyptic cancers of every LN i eventually dropped:

3.1.1 Repeating themselves over and over again/sometimes just rehashing the same sentence.
3.1.2. People react to MC being strong/soon fighting someone they perceive out of their league/winning against them.
3.1.3. Regurgitating something earlier said (last chapter or so) from a different POV without adding anything valuable by using that POV.
3.1.4. People POTENTIALLY reacting ("if he knew this, he would spit out blood") to MC being strong and the author overexplaining basic stuff.

(I realized i am reading mostly the same kind of genre while writing this, replace these points for your least favourite word-padding styles)

I think you get what im getting at.

I get that reading this kinda stuff does add some satisfaction/face-slapping (i love a good faceslap as much as you do) to the experience but some stories take it to the next level and i cant see anyone wanting to pay money to only get half a chapter because the other half is cancer.

This is connected to another problem, namely:

4. Requiring a story to reach a certain word-count/chapter-count/quantitative requirement before going premium.(not sure on that one, correct me if i am wrong)

4.1. This just outright incentivizes the same word-padding methods i pointed out in 3 and is exacerbated by the authors refusal to think long-term. Most new novels i read on this site tend to go premium/adwall pretty much immediately upon reaching the target requirement to do so. Please correct me if its only the novels i am/was reading, maybe i just have bad taste in authors.

Now i dont want to discuss if a author is entitled to make money of his/her work because im not retarded. Of course you are entitled to that income.

My personal problem with this is not the author receiving some kind of compensation for their work but the kind of expectations that come with the money i spend on your work compared to me getting it for free.

If i am going to spend money on this website in general and on a novel specifically i am going to choose where to spend it and which novels to cut from my library when they go premium - depending on several factors - one of which is the trust i have in an author to continue a novel to its end.

I dont care what might be said in the reviews or comments by overzealous fans defending their favourite story needlessly, reality is just that most novels dont get finished(or at least their translation doesnt?). If i spent money on purchasing the chapters of that story i invested that money in expectation of getting a pay-off, which is not only the joy of reading a good story but also finishing it eventually.

If that story never ends because it or its translation is dropped i feel cheated out of my money. Now some might argue that i am only entitled to the exact amount of words in the chapter i paid SS for and technically they are right, but in reality that means i am going to become more and more careful about spending those SS which is not something you as an author should want from your readers if you want to maximise your earnings.

If you, the author, word-pad the story just to make it to premium, then paywall-lock that same story which in most cases is in the early stages of character- and story-development (and i have seen this more than noce) that just makes me assume a few things about your attitude dealing with me as a paying reader.

1: Holy shit, this guy wants to make a quick buck. If he had confidence in his story standing on its own he wouldnt cash out at around 100-200 chapters. It reeks of "oh, i am falling off in power-ranking, better cash out on that goodwill/attention before nobody is reading anymore".
2: I dont think this story is going to be finished any time soon which means every chapter i pay is making the (LIGHT-)novel as a whole more expensive in total than some books (and i am talking bestselling books, not novels) on Amazon.
3: If you go premium now and dont make the amount of money you expect because not enough people opt-in, where is my guarantee you will finish what you started?

Bonus point if your author compiled a certain amount of chapters into a pdf-document and put it on Amazon without giving people who paid for it on webnovel already access with some half-baked excuse.
Now i am certain you are just trying to cash out.

Just to reiterate: I am not against authors earning money for their hard work. I am concerned with the kind of ways they turn to to do so and the disregard many seem to have developed for the built-up goodwill they have in the community.

On the other hand, some of the stories i stayed with for the longest time were the ones who threw 500-600 chapters with awesome word-count at me to get me actually hooked and invested in the story itself and the characters in it.
This also built trust: If this guy writes an awesome story for so long no way he is going to quit half-way through, right? (personal reasons or other unpredictable things notwithstanding).

Additionally, the better and more thought-out the story seems the more confidence i have in investing money in it.

All in all imho the current system makes a great enviroment for people hyping up their short-lived premium-cash-cow but does little to reward those writing maybe shorter chapters which read better/have a better story(-progression) with half the words the generic face-slapping BS we get is using.

This will hurt the community,the authors and even Qidian in the long run, assuming all are in this for the long-term benefits. I am sure people will become more careful about where to put their SS or even turn to pirating the chapters (and there are more than enough sites offering just that).

Best solution i can come up with are subscription-models (Think Spotify, Netflix, Amazon prime):

Example 1: Pay 10$ (just an example) a month, get access to 15 (again, just an example) novels of your choosing. Unlimited. No ads. No BS. No word-padding. The money gets divided between the authors/translators/editors of the novels you choose in either a set ratio or a ratio you can adjust.

Oh, this author released 10 chapters with the combined content of 3? Less money for the author.
This one releases 3 awesome chapters with great writing and developments? More money for the author.
Your translator is bad? Less money for the translator until he learns the ropes and so on.

Also Qidian gets a cut i guess.

This can scale up with money and amount of novels available.

Problems with this kind of system i could think of:

1. If you write stuff your audience does not like you might get less money and it might be hard to find out why. Is my story bad or is my audience not patient enough to appreciate a good set-up? Polls and comments might be a solution here, but this brings us to...well point 2:

2. Authors are artists. If they start to pander to the audience as to get a higher payout are they not compromising on their artistic integrity?

I thought about these 2 points long and hard, then realized: Thats already where we are right now, just with SS per words instead of a subscription which i can allocate as i want. Except with SS i have to pay beforehand just to find out its filler.

In conclusion, and i just think every novel new novel on this site going premium in a way that makes me regret ever spending time to start reading it just proves my point: There is nothing worse for someone who relies on a community to make their living than to treat this very community like idiots or freeloaders, and the more authors are starting to think and act that way the more people are going to opt-out of this.

I would love to write some more about why SS generally are bad and some other stuff, but honestly? Im hungry and going to lunch now. Also i am afraid nobody is going to read this because its become to long.

Do you have any thoughts on all this or am i blatanly wrong in some or all my assumptions/conclusions?
I would love to read from you.

As for me? I am going to stay on webnovel.com, read the stories i consider worth my time, drop the rest and argue and bitch in the comments as usual. See you soon!

TL;DR: Mass release when?