New J-Novel price band.
-
@hopebestman I had that in mind when I was saying the suggestion, that's why I also added having something like a free credit after using fifty coins. Since people would 'lose' the sections when they were taken down customers whould still feel like they are getting something long term for the money. Kind of like how you get a 'free' credit with a premium membership.
-
@db0ssman yeah but as an idea i like the way you think. I was thinking paying 0.99$ to a one series every month like we do now for all series. The way you bring 4 credit system would allow people to open one part a time. So even they miss or didnt have time to read for a month(could be for a working people). They can buy 8 parts in one go and can read. Money didnt go waste :D
Also there could problems as "misclick the series so i want to change my series(but in truth, they read the series in a day so now want to read another one for free). With credit system all JNC had to do give 0.25$ for free ones or twice. Anyway, the main thing, in JNC there is a "only one series following" thing. And it would be nice to bring a system for those poor souls.
-
Eh, I don't think there's nearly enough people who only follow one series to justify all the extra work and complications. (Especially since it seems like it's only Bookworm that gets this whole "only here for this" approach...)
Honestly, I would just suggest trying out more series, namely the monthly catch-up series or any vol. 1s that haven't expired yet (I hear Fushi no Kami is recommended for Bookworm fans). Don't worry about whether it's "your taste" or not; just try it out and maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised. Might as well get your money's worth for that membership, right?
MAL
Beneath the Tangles (the blog I write for) -
@stardf29 I honestly read many books in here and after that i said to myself "i would much rather read the book i read before". Its just because of taste. I mean i dont want to be rude but as personally most of the series in here "bad" in my opinion.
Although, i found couple series so not gonna lie, having access all of them is a good thing. Even some of them "bad" but worth to read "bad" series :D
-
I think your best option would be to convince J-Novel to do what is being done with Demon Lord, Retry! on Bookwalker. The prepubs are simultaneously added to Bookwalker as they are translated here and are sold there for about a dollar each. No subscription required, and they support Paypal and have a neat coin-back system. So would reduce your $5 membership to a dollar a week (roughly $4 a month but not quite).
However, Sam has said recently that the profit generated through this venture doesn't quite compensate for all the work required on both J-Novel's and Bookwalker's ends. So you'd have to convince him.
-
@LegitPancake i didnt know that. So 1$ for a series wouldnt be fair if bookwalker sells 1.12 for each part.
-
@Jon-Mitchell So there isn't a good analogy to get my point across, this is the best I come up with ,every month I buy a cupcake set of 5 different cup cakes , eat one and throw all the others away because they are all flavour I don't like. The store I buy from doesn't typically offer the single cupcake, while yes I can eat all the other 4 cupcakes I simply don't want them, I don't enjoy eating them, so every time I get it, I have to pay for the 5 cupcakes which is the price of 3 cupcakes to get the single cup cake i want, the store does sell the single cupcake I like as an end of season thing like every 4 months, but I cant wait 4 whole months just to have it, so I am merely asking the store if they would consider selling the single cup cake all year around. obviously the store has the right to say no they lose money that way cause people aren't forced to buy their more expensive cupcake set to get that popular cupcake, I accept that reason, but I've at least asked instead of just sulking about it. That is the ultimate point of my post, I know that j-novel is not going to even consider what I've said, probably laugh at how ridiculous what I'm asking for is, however I had a problem and I've made the effort to try fix it and I'm satisfied, I'm addicted to the series, so I'm still going to pay the fee to be able to read it.
I actually don't use the forums often, only used it once before I posted this. Also i completely get your point, but sometimes a lot of people forget about is that in comparison to when you buy a book physically and digitally is that when you buy the book digitally you aren't actually buying the book, you are buying the right to read it for a given amount of time, normally that time is basically forever, but amazon or whoever you brought from reserves the right to take it away, that why if you were to do something shady on kindle and they banned you, amazon doesn't have to refund you the books you payed for, you payed to have access for an undisclosed time, and that can be 90 years or 2 days. J novel is the very essence of this, however they very much disclose the time you have. so while yes the retail price of a physical copy is much the same i am paying the massive difference is that i pay to have access to read for a finite amount of time while with the book is mine forever no matter what anyone says if it the physical copy.
-
@stardf29 Hey you would surprised at the amount of people who just come here to read bookworm, like myself, we don't use the forums since we tend to come on once a week to read the new part and then we are gone till next week, so you wont tend to see us, like this is only my 4th time on here and 3 on times was to come on here to reply to people on this post. but i do agree the profits made from that would not really be worth it, there is the possibility that like hundreds of people may suddenly subscribe because they werent willing to pay 5 dollars, but will pay 1. however that just as likely as j novel thinking my idea is good, which is near zero.
I honestly have, I read so many part ones to so many series and I honestly just cant get into many of them, I got a bit into grace of the gods, but at some point it got really boring and i just gave up on it. i actively try new series now and then and it just not my thing especially because a lot of light novels are sexualised and it just annoyed to no end, i don't need to know about their boobs or thick bodies, so reading ones which involve children main characters tend to not have it, which is why asc and grace(temporally) worked for me.
I will try out fushi, i think you are the second to suggest it.
-
...is that in comparison to when you buy a book physically and digitally is that when you buy the book digitally you aren't actually buying the book, you are buying the right to read it for a given amount of time, normally that time is basically forever, but amazon or whoever you brought from reserves the right to take it away... J novel is the very essence of this, however they very much disclose the time you have....
This is a slightly wrong? way to interpret the membership and digital books from JNC. The membership is a collection of services and benefits, such as, access to the latest parts of translations, bonus content with purchase of the full ebook from JNC, or (for premium members)a discounted price on each purchase as well as 1 "free" credit/ebook per month, and if you choose to only take advantage of only one...well...that's your choice. If you were to actually purchase the ebook from JNC you would infact own that book. There is no DRM that could possibly ban, restrict, or delete your ebook. It would be no different than you making a text document and saving it on your PC. Of course your hard drive could crash or it could become corrupted...but that's no different than if you lost a physical book or it possibly getting burned in a fire. I'm not saying having it digital is the same as having it physical, but purchasing from JNC, you own it all the same.
-
@FrozenNexus said in New J-Novel price band.:
... every month I buy a cupcake set of 5 different cup cakes , eat one and throw all the others away because they are all flavour I don't like...
Although it's clear what you are trying to say, the analogy breaks down when talking about digital goods. I suspect the majority of your membership fee goes to hosting and staffing - i.e. large fixed costs. By contrast, serving up a small amount of content each week likely costs very little, unlike the cost of baking a cupcake. And thus the potential cost saving would likely also be rather small.
Like you, I only read Bookworm (or used to, I've recently gotten into other series). But I always felt like it was worth it for me to support a service that offers a niche title that I really enjoy. I guess because I always had it in mind that I was really paying for the service rather than the content I never felt like I wasn't getting my money's worth.
I know that j-novel is not going to even consider what I've said, probably laugh at how ridiculous what I'm asking for is, however I had a problem and I've made the effort to try fix it and I'm satisfied
It's not a ridiculous request. It's completely true that people who read more series than you are getting more "value" for their money. It's also true that maybe there is a business case to be made that bringing in additional people willing to pay $1.99 (or whatever) who might not otherwise be customers would be a net-win for JNC assuming existing customers don't downgrade.
-
@Khaos said in New J-Novel price band.:
There is no DRM that could possibly ban, restrict, or delete your ebook. It would be no different than you making a text document and saving it on your PC. Of course your hard drive could crash or it could become corrupted...but that's no different than if you lost a physical book or it possibly getting burned in a fire. I'm not saying having it digital is the same as having it physical, but purchasing from JNC, you own it all the same.
This is one of the reasons why I love JNC, despite being kinda of lukewarm on the concept of ebooks in general. The fact that when I buy an ebook through JNC I actually own it removes several of the major qualms I ordinary have about purchasing ebooks. Do I still prefer paper? Yes I do, and probably always will, but the way JNC does things means I can take advantage of the benefits of digital (namely, saving physical space), without having to suffer one of the most major drawbacks.
-
@FrozenNexus
I get what you are saying with your analogy. I sympathize. However bear in mind that membership is not 'buying' or 'renting a license' to access pre-pubs. You are NOT buying anything with basic membership. You are supporting the endeavor of translating the work --- as if you were at the 'supporting' tier on a gofundme or kickstarter, too low $$ to get any swag, but helping the effort nonetheless. Pre-pubs are essentially (very detailed) status reports of the project's progress. Your membership is appreciated. If I recall correctly, someone stated in a Q&A that the royalties for all prepubs are paid out of membership dues and pooled, so in essence folks who read only a very popular title like Bookworm are subsidizing other projects that might not yet be popular so I could understand if JNC said limiting access to the most popular title(s) for a reduced cost would break the model.On a separate note, it is regrettable that you haven't found additional series that interest you. Have you considered suggesting specific titles that you'd like to see translated?
re: your analogy. A closer example would be if you only liked green M&M's. Few retailers have these on hand, your typical outlets only carry the package with assorted colors. You should expect to pay a premium (dollars per ounce) to get only green ones...like at the M&M store in Times Square, or a novelty store that stocks them for weddings and such.
-
@FrozenNexus ok, First of all... Why so aggressive? I just confirmed what the silent majority said. your idea might be nice, but it's not feasible for JNC and second... well, it'll be up to you to decide what to do, keep paying for a full roasted chicken when you only like the wings, or stop buying the chicken altogether and buy the wings
individually in another store. -
The most realistic approach to this would be letting people who have pre ordered the premium version have access to prepubs of that volume. I believe a similar feature was recently released in the app beta that gave people access to old pre pubs for volumes they have bought, though I’m not sure if that extends to pre orders as well (maybe someone can test?).
-
@Lake said in New J-Novel price band.:
The most realistic approach to this would be letting people who have pre ordered the premium version have access to prepubs of that volume. I believe a similar feature was recently released in the app beta that gave people access to old pre pubs for volumes they have bought, though I’m not sure if that extends to pre orders as well (maybe someone can test?).
umm...can you buy/pre-order a premium if you're not a member? I was under the impression that you cannot. (Access to purchase ebooks from JNC is a benefit of membership) I suspect that this would solve the 'problem' for a consumer...but creates another problem for JNC. Royalties must be paid (both) for pre-pubs and for premium editions of ebooks. Without membership dues, one of the revenue sources to pay for those royalties disappears. This could be resolved if JNC charged MORE for epubs/premiums to non-members (maybe the cover price of the paperback? the price on amazon + some percentage ?) and I'm sure some folks would complain about that too (and it may be a violation of the licensing agreement JNC has w/ the Japanese publishers). and AooB doesn't have any extra stories in premium editions ... some folks may claim that they aren't getting anything for the extra $$ and around we go again
below is not a criticism of @Lake or anyone in particular. I grow weary of comments I see on other forums and as well as here attempting to justify piracy, or justifying not paying what is fair to artists and professionals for their work etc....thus I begin my rant:
"There is no such thing as a free lunch" if you like "x" it has a cost, pay the cost and get your "x". If you think the cost is too high, don't buy "x" (and you don't get "x") the market price of "x" is what it is and the vast majority of consumers feel the market price is fair (or they wouldn't pay it and JNC would have to lower the price...and JNC would have to negotiate lower royalties to get licenses...and maybe we wouldn't have access to the titles you love, or they wouldn't be translated as quickly and professionally as we are getting them. This is the definition of "value" in the science of economics sense ---if you value something, pay for it
I read banned books
-
@Jon-Mitchell said in New J-Novel price band.:
umm...can you buy/pre-order a premium if you're not a member? I was under the impression that you cannot. (Access to purchase ebooks from JNC is a benefit of membership)
I believe you can't buy credits them yet, but you can spend previously purchased ones if you get the link (easy enough to do if you know the format - though I think I remember reading you could do this on the beta site without needing to create the link yourself).
I actually looked into this a bit more, and it seems a pre order did show up in my Library on the Beta app, with pre pubs parts available to read (I am still a member so unsure if this would let you read them if you weren't - but this seems to work the same as other volumes). Actually I also noticed pre ordering it on the beta site listed "Allows you to read prepub parts as they are published" as a benefit of buying the premium edition. Maybe this is actually an intended feature for the new site/app?
-
@Jon-Mitchell said in New J-Novel price band.:
umm...can you buy/pre-order a premium if you're not a member? I was under the impression that you cannot.
You currently cannot, but I’m pretty sure one of the (WIP) features of the beta website is to allow non-members to purchase credits. Don’t know when that will be established or what the price will be, but seems to be in the works.
