[IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025
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I think I've adjusted to the new tiers.
Premium has kinda became a dead end, both Premium Club and Premium Club Legacy. If you miss Catch Up AND you like using coins to buy favored books and get all their premium content, or just to read all the other 293 series that are not part of the Readers Library, then Premium Readers Club is the way to go.
If you don't care about bonus book material and are happy for now reading the 44 full series in the Readers Library list and the 21 partial series (ie first three volumes are free to read), then Readers Club is probably where you want to be. But you may want to go month to month so you can easily upgrade in the future.
Also, if you have accumulated so many coins that you're concerned about inflation reducing their value, you should probably coast on Readers Club for a while and spend out your reserves.
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After reading this thread, I agree with many of the opinions given. I would have expected to have been informed of major upcoming changes at least a month prior as well as given a choice to move existing subscriptions to a new plan or cancel them with a pro-rated discount. The way this change has been handled is highly unprofessional and reflects poorly on Kadokawa, as they're ultimately responsible for your actions.
The majority of what I have been reading has been catch-up series, so I am losing my main reason to be using this service. I grew up reading printed novels, so I personally prefer reading full volumes over reading a chapter at a time. This is is why I hadn't used this service until recently, as I was rightly under the impression that the focus here is on reading chapters as they release. This is a valuable service for many, it makes sense to focus on your strengths and I'm sure you have thousands that love what you provide, but it just isn't for me.
I started an annual Premium subscription back on July 30th as the terms offered seemed to have good value and I thought locking in a year would be a good way to support the company. With this change I'm essentially paying $10 a month to get 699 coins and am locked in for 9 more months. That doesn't even buy me a single e-book each month and I'd much rather just go to my local bookstore and buy a physical book for $10. To be completely honest, at this point, I don't even want to spend the coins currently sitting in my account. It kinda feels like I got scammed, even though I know that wasn't your intention.
Honestly, I think most people would have been perfectly fine with both the price increase as well as a change in what the subscriptions offered if it had been done in a more professional manner. I hope you can do better going forward and will provide a positive experience to your current and future customers.
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I started a new topic w/ a suggestion : but I can't imagine it hurts to post it here also:
my anniversary month is May, so I essentially pre-paid for the next 7 (8?) months of my premium membership; however, my membership grants an allowance benefit of 699 credits, and a ebook now costs 799. JNC should honor the terms (at least the implied terms) that a membership includes enough coins to purchase an ebook per month.
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JNC should honor prices of ebooks (1 per month) for premium annual members for the remainder of the subscription year. Alternately, JNC should add a credit of 100 coins per month remaining to accounts of annual premium members to 'make them whole'
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a nice thing to do, (in addition) would be grant members that pre-paid annual memberships access to reader library for the remainder of the annual term (until their respective anniversaries) - this would lessen the 'sting' of losing catch-ups to those who valued that, and encourage upgrading to premium+ reader when they renew at anniversary time
I know the cost is going up when I renew next year, but the value of what I already 'own' for the remainder of my membership subscription should not be eroded. I am not talking about legal terms and conditions or EULAs, or what a member is 'entitled' to. I'm talking about what likely feels right for member community
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Thanks for implementing the price changes before actually posting on the front page or emailing about changes. All my saved coins just became 15% more worthless but cool, we still get a book worth per month with a 10% price increase.
Even steel and fastener suppliers I barely use for work are capable of giving 3 months notice of price increases across the board. It’s an email list. It’s not hard. Take all the crap you just wrote for the website, dump into email. Done.
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@sygish They did. I received an email from them about a week ago.
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@Nubz_Unite I and many others in this thread didn’t.
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@Nubz_Unite the email was part of the regular newsletter, if you aren't subscribed to it (or the youtube channel), you didn't get a notification about this change
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@Neshura-0 said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
@Nubz_Unite the email was part of the regular newsletter, if you aren't subscribed to it (or the youtube channel), you didn't get a notification about this change
yes, a definite mis-step
- JNC has a "BLOG" link on their home page - where they list what is on catchup every month *(and where they posted the changes after they happened) they could have posted something there
- I believe every JNC member has an email address linked to their account / billing info (you know they can reach you if a credit card transaction doesn't go through) they could've send the details out ahead of time
I want to offer constructive suggestions on how to move forward instead of piling on complaints:
- maybe expand the "blog' section - make it 'news and announcements' I know you can't announce things before they are official - but as soon as you can - get stuff out there
- archive the newsletters, and include a link to them on the homepage (and make that easy to find) as opposed (in addition) to just an opt-in email
- post an article (as a blog post? in a newsletter? in a forum?) where is some of the money going? We all know the 'cost of business' is continuing to go up, professional translators and editors need to be paid, no one wants MTL/ChatGPT based translations/localizations of LNs, licenses cost more$, websites cost more$, corporate overlords have demands- let us know where some of the money is going and we'll feel better about paying an extra couple of dollars a month
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@sygish Okay, I was just correcting you on saying that they didn't send an email out. They did, you didn't receive it. but there was an email.
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To be honest, I didn't find the video very explanatory, and the looping background music was too loud, distracting, and made it difficult to follow what was being said.
Also there were only 60 people watching it live according to the stats window that came up at one point.
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@Nubz_Unite I don’t care that they sent an email to other members. I care they didn’t deem it necessary to send myself and other 8 year paying customers an email. Like others said, this wasn’t an advertising email. It was a major change of terms. Good for you though, opting out of extra marketing emails is usually a good thing.
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Referenced by G GeorgeMTO
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I understand you won't care in a meaningful way, but I can't stress how much I hate all the coins I've gotten from years of premium membership losing 15% of their buying power without any notice unless I was following the marketing communications.
When you raised the price in 2023 you sent me an email!
I wouldn't even know why my subscription stopped next month if I hadn't come to try and find out if the catchup titles were bugged or late or something.
I don't have any issues with the price increase. Losing 6 books worth of coins with no heads up feels like a scam.
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No catch-up, no book a month of coins, reduced discount... No notice given to members that aren't part of the newsletter...
That's egregious. Horrid. And unacceptable. My coins from last month that I was saving for the next volume of Exp is Golden will now not be enough. And catch-up, which was the entire reason I first subscribed, is gone without any favorable changes to compensate... Instead I have to pay even more for an arguably worse option... Yeah I guess I'm downgrading.
What the hell guys? Why did you neuter the plan with functionally 0 notice and without a single benefit? Why did our legacy subs still get neutered too? We lose 5% of our discount, 15% of our current wallet, and catch-up and are told to spend more money for literally less than what we could buy directly with the difference. It's laughably bad how this was handled.
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Had there been a Premium Reader option for $12 a month, I.e: 15% discount, 799 coins, access to reader catalogue, but no prepubs, then maybe your customers would have been less upset about how this was handled...
Losing catchups hurt, man.
I follow a ton of series and I personally see value in a permanent reader catalogue... But if this bad taste sticks in my mouth, and I stop enjoying your products as a result of how this was handled, then I might end up dropping my j-novel subscription and read epubs from Libby instead.
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I'm not particularly bothered by losing catch-ups. It's been months since I've found something I wanted on catch-ups, so my value for subscription isn't changing much except that the price of books is going up. I'm mostly here for the prepubs anyway.
That said, I'm with others that this should have been announced better. It's not a great first impression if the first time I hear about changes is people raising concerns or complaining about the changes, before I see any official announcement of what the changes are.
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@Phabiohost said in [IMPORTANT UPDATE] New Subscription Tiers + Readers Library Now Live as of October 3, 2025:
What the hell guys? Why did you neuter the plan with functionally 0 notice and without a single benefit? Why did our legacy subs still get neutered too? We lose 5% of our discount, 15% of our current wallet, and catch-up and are told to spend more money for literally less than what we could buy directly with the difference. It's laughably bad how this was handled.
Not sure what exactly you mean here but at least the way I see it the premium subs still have their value if you assume the coins from Premium will be bought anyway:
Club vs. Premium Club:
Club + 799 Coins: 4.95$ + 7.99$ = 12.94$
Premium Club (which also has a 10% discount): 11.95$Price Difference Club compared to Premium Club: 0.99$ / 7.9% more expensive
Readers Club vs. Premium Readers Club:
Readers Club + 799 Coins: 7.95$ + 7.99$ * 0.95 = 15.54$
Premium Readers Club (with an 10% additional discount over Readers Club): 14.95$Price Difference Readers Club compared to Premium Readers Club: 0.59$ / 3.9% more expensive
These differences arguably aren't much but a 4%/8% saving isn't exactly no value either. On top every coin purchase over the 799 coins included anyway makes the Premium tiers more beneficial due to the discounts.
On the other hand I agree about the lack of notice, something like that should not happen and imo some form of compensation to those affected would go a long way in repairing trust.
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@Lacin well written.
Since I frequently visit the forums for small talk here and there I have also followed this thread and over the past days this and that thought also crossed my mind.
Overall, the sudden changes and >>miscommunication<< which I want to call it, are leaving with me overall a very bitter taste with J-Novel Club. It is not the first time that I am not happy. Which makes it even worse considering my support for JNC, where I think the translations made are in quality better than what I could get from other translators and publishers.
As mentioned before, I feel similar put off like back then, when it changed from 1 credit = 1 book to the coin system. I faintly recalled that we were rushed to exchange the coins as well, otherwise they would become invalid? Either way, is a bad memory I am not thinking enough about it.
By the end of the day I can also say: the change in pricing is probably the least issue here.
The coin system was introduced back then in anticipation, something like this would happen eventually in the future. And I still got my coins. They are not being taken away. It is just that the prices of books have risen.
Therefore I can accept my own fault for the static thinking that every month I get coins worth a book <=> 1 book every month as part of the subscription.
However.
This miscommunication in part of the sudden change effectively devalued the subscription I have already paid for. Alright - that might be, again, - debatable since the amount of coins did not change - but the price for books definitely did.
Which is absolutely infuriating, because if I knew about the change beforehand, I would have spent my coins and books and still got the value I had before 699 coins = 1 book.
Even that would have angered me a lot, because it is the same push to "spend your credits on books, or they become worthless" - the only difference is just that there has been no warning beforehand and I can only react in form of my complaint here.
Would I still be angry if I had been informed two, or better four weeks in advance? Yes. But not as much as not having the chance to redeem the coins for books in the 699 = 1 book ratio.
Personally I like to think, instead of the legacy subscription silent change, the right way for JNC to do it would have been either
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cancel the subscription altogether, so people with annual subscriptions get a refund and a change to decide whether they want to continue with a new subscription and exchange their coins as long as the ratio is 699 = 1 book
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change the annual subscription to a new one but giving the current subscribers additional coins to make up for it for the length of the rest of their current ongoing subscription
Putting the problem with communication all aside, that would have made me a happy understanding continous subscriber which I could fully support and recommend to new customers. The experience of this silent change which only seemingly gives me disadvantage does the exact opposite of that.
Another thing which personally bothers me is the explaination regarding pricing.
It might be not a big thing, but I feel it is worth mentioning. Maybe it is due to currency differences, but when JNC mentioned the prices of their books have been risen elsewhere too - I nodded in understanding at first for the price changes. But then I looked closer into it at amazon.de where I got my books mainly, because they have been always cheaper there. I still happen to find manx titles cheaper there. It is no big discount, but the pricing is not... what is the English word? Unitly? As in: all the same - e.g. one series I am reading has the pricing of their books 6,76 , 6,81 , 6,84 - some other have even a whole EUR or more discount despite there is no same sale on JNC.
I do not know the mechanics behind it, but it gives an additional bitter taste, thinking that the pricing reasoning of JNC is not as solid as they made it sound. In addition to that, the main reason I prefer buying my ebooks here than rather elsewhere has been diminished greatly with so many titles I have been reading not getting any bonus materials.
I mean that was always the main argument for me to say: buying at JNC is worth it! because you not only get it DRM-free but also get bonus material you would not get anywhere else.
@Jon-Mitchell I definitely support your suggestions. Especially your ideas regarding how JNC should improve their communications and make up for what happened.
Maybe the fault lies entirely with me as well. I mean in how I see JNC.
I have mentioned it before that I see myself as a supporter, probably moreso than just a customer as subscriber. I have always the image of JNC being a team of publisher and translators with the passion to bring us Japanese light novels in high quality as a form of entertainment we had not before.
I see them as grown from a small team to a big and significant market share, where I still nowadays think that the Japanese translated light novel market would not exist as it is today, so many competitors, if it was not for JNCs first bold steps.
I was really happy when thinks took off awesomely with obvious picks like Bookworm or Apothecaries Diary - back then I did not even know JNC is part of the Kadokawa group and I found out about that with surprise just earlier.
In my image JNC was strongest by being close to its supporters and fans who came along for the ride - I mean I recognise a lot of users with whom I have interacted five years ago, them still being subscribers to this day.
But if JNC is really all that, would it have made this sort of miscommunication error?
Mayhaps it is just me who feels that way.
So therefore it is my own fault for thinking like that.But you know what: the world is bad enough people just complaining and being toxic over the smallest things in the internet, that I am not in the mood to be more angry than pissed off (the bad thing, not the good thing). I still got the coins, and if I treat it as pseudo-currency, for what it is, I cannot say I lost anything. It is like holding back money to buy later just to find out there has been a price increase. The money is not gone. But it is annoying like hell to miss out on the price I was counting them for, and I cannot exchange the pseudo currency back into actual money, hence my two suggestions from before.
By the end of the day I just wish for maybe two things
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JNC apologizing for their miscommunication
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JNC improving on that topic moving forward
We here, who are writing and reading this stuff at the forums, are doing it because we care.
We could have just unsubscribe and not say a word, but instead we give feedback.
I am just worried at the moment that there might be an unknown number of subscribers who did not get any news at all about the change. Because I definitely would have not known if I did not visit the forums.
And I wonder: is JNC really okay to go on without correcting the matter?
Just imagine how they will feel without any communication. In fact, all I have is just in the form of the forums as well, as there was no other information so far...
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Hello,
I am not going to stop the criticism aimed at J-Novel Club.
What I am going to stop is attacks on fellow users. Please keep any comments aimed at the company, not each other.
