Book Of Answers - Chapter 7
Over the past year, our Webnovel community has grown rapidly, much faster than we had expected. We are really grateful for all of your support and are happy to see that the community has become so large. People from North America, South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Australia, and Africa are all enjoying the same stories. We could never have imagined that our beloved web novels could step past the cultural differences and ethnic barriers. All of these achievements are due to you, our readers.
Today, we will be officially announcing the details of one of Webnovel’s most important featuresthe Premium Program. A number of titles will become Premium. Readers will be able to read Premium chapters in advance by using Spirit Stones.
What else does the Premium Program provide?
With the Premium Program, readers can not only enjoy more chapters, but also support our diligent translators, editors, and greatest authors directly. This will certainly motivate them in providing high-quality stories with a much steadier release rate. We believe that one day, Webnovel translators, editors, and authors globally will be able to see their jobs as full-time professions, and the beginning of that is today.
What is the Premium Program?
The development of any business model requires constant improvements over time. It is not solely dictated by Webnovel, and it requires all of us to explore and develop the business together. There will be constant optimization to ensure that we do not deviate from the right pathto ensure that all parties receive what they deserve. We also invite all of you to help us in building a better future.
Why are we starting the Premium Program?
Having been in the web novel business for 15 years, our company values content creators the most. Our guiding principle at the company’s inception was to ensure that authors can achieve a basic livelihood so that they can focus on creating content. We are glad that we have now worked with as many as six million authors over the years, and just in 2016 alone, the average income of the top ten online literature writers from online literature was 32.3 million RMB, almost twice as much as that of offline publication writers, at 17.3 million RMB. We also value the intellectual property of these authors, and the contracts with our authors require us to share half the profits from other sources with them as royalties.
For the translations of these web novels, we value translators and editors as content creators just like our authors. Without them, we are unable to share these works with the international community. Currently, operations are maintained with advertisements at a loss, and this prevents us from sharing royalties with our authors, translators, and editors. We hope that the Premium Program, similar in spirit to industry best practices but adapted for Webnovel, will ensure the interests of all parties so that the sharing of novel translations can be sustainable.
What if I’m not able to afford the Premium cost?
Free Readers, do not fear, we also care deeply about your reading experience as non-premium readers.You can still get Spirit Stones, which can be used to access premium chapters, by daily check-ins, voting, inviting friends, participating in community events, and even watching video ads on a daily basis.