Does WebNovel Pay?

If you’re used to reading free fan translations hosted on aggregator websites then everything will seem incredibly expensive. The cost of reading on WebNovel is for the convenience, the stability, and the author. Most of the time it’s worth it, but sometimes it’s not. The official translations are typically much better quality and you can expect regular updates at set times. This structure is what you are paying for. But the cost can quickly add up. WebNovel does not have a monthly cap, unlike how you might subscribe to an author on Patreon for a set amount per month. On WebNovel you pay for each portion of the novel as it is released, and authors can be very prolific.

Is everyone still using WebNovel? I thought by now we’d have all migrated to this new app that pays way better than WebNovel. I guess that’ll change soon though since the landscape is always shifting in some way. Some platforms are super stingy right now but that doesn’t mean they won’t be handing out free premium currency to first users of their app in order to gather a user base to compete with others. I guess it’s wise to keep an eye out for new platforms and be an early adopter every now and then.

Reading around on author forums for big publishing platforms, it seems that exclusive authors are usually paid a monthly sum (or even advance payment against future royalties) – anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, I’d imagine. Most of these deales apparently then require word counts and frequency of chapter updates to be met, and the platform can exercise all rights in all languages, thus keeping 50% of net revenue for themselves as royalties to the author after the advance has been earned out (that can be anywhere from 25% to 85% in the deals I’ve read, averaging 50%). Obviously, it’s not all terrible – if you treat it as a writing job, then deliver according to agreed terms, it might even suit some authors just fine. But as far as creative control, you’re likely to be persuaded to continue a popular story past its natural ending, churning out more and more of the same, or – even worse – adding in all sorts of dull formulaic devices to make an easy sell.

Many original fiction platforms have ad revenue and/or tip jars for writers, and most of these sites have terms of service that prohibit writers from earning money from derivative work (i.e. fiction based on someone else’s intellectual property). Yes, some authors are very, very tolerant of fan fiction written by their fans, but even they don’t typically allow that to be sold. Monetizing fan fiction would generally be considered to be commodifying tribute, which is a very different thing from just writing stories for fun. This is to say that some writers publish “original stories” on Patreon while simultaneously posting vast amounts of fanfic online. Their original work is always contained in a completely separate fictional universe from their fanfic. The safest way to build an audience of readers is to use that audience as a springboard to richer pickings from your own intellectual property, which you can then sell. Monetizing the fanfic itself is a very tightrope act and most sites will quickly pull your work should they sense even the slightest attempt to monetize it.

It is rather difficult to understand how the payment is structured for authors outside of the partner program. According to what I have gathered from other authors, they receive a portion of the ad revenue generated by their chapters, and can also earn extra in bonuses depending on the amount of readers they have. However, it appears that webcomic authors are basically considered independent contractors, and therefore upload their work to the platform. In regards to the split percentage that they pay, it varies based on the platform, and is usually revealed after an author applies to join the platform’s monetization scheme. The way that the platforms are set up currently, it is in the best interest of the platform to keep the majority of the author’s earnings in the early stages. As an author of webcomics, it is best to consider the platforms as merely one of many streams of income that an author could be using to sustain themselves. The biggest portion of income for most webcomic authors comes from their direct fanbase that they have built on social media. The author can earn symbolic amounts of money from their comics that aren’t getting much attention, but other than that, they wouldn’t even come close to making a living wage.

I thought I was the only one having trouble. Was my experience on 'That Other Novel App' this annoying? Apparently not, as it’s a common experience across all platforms of buying and canceling novels. I understand that there is a “find the hidden menu, click on 3 other offers in the process, eventually click to cancel” process to cancel a subscription on Webnovel too. Thanks for spelling it out for me though. I feel your pain, cancellees. May your TBR piles shrink and your bank accounts grow in the coming days.

All advances are paid out against future royalties, so for a flat-fee series sale, the fee is the payment and there are no subsequent royalties. In single-title sales, the author receives the advance and then, theoretically, he or she will earn royalties on the book once it “earns out” or exceeds the amount of the advance. Few books ever earn out, though, so the advance is essentially the entire payment the author will receive for a single title. It’s a much more old-school industry payment structure than so much of the rest of the industry has undergone in the last 20 years or so.

Just lurking here. Looks like a lot of work to borrow e-books. The free e-books from my local library through their ebook app are fine by me!

Wait, are you new to using Wattpad? I ask that because anyone who has been publishing works on there for a while knows that you never get paid for writing on this platform.

It’s all really confusing – Prime, Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, Prime Reading – lots of things to choose from and I just get confused. I don’t really know what the difference is, but when I search for a book I click on it and it tells me whether I can read it for free as part of Prime or not. If it doesn’t say ‘Read for Free with Prime’ or something along those lines then I know I’ll have to pay for it to read it. But I don’t know the limits of Prime and what’s included and what’s not – I just search for what I want to read and it tells me whether it’s free or not.